50 ILLUSTRATED HORSE-BREAKING. 



namely, in one that will allow the mouth-piece 

 always to rest on the bars we must then teach 

 him, on the reins being " felt," to bend his neck in 

 order to ''save" his mouth. The partial check to 

 the action of the muscles that draw the fore-limb 

 forward, caused by the bending of the neck (see 

 page 45) will be an easily understood signal to the 

 animal to moderate his pace. 



Proper direction for the pull of the reins. When 

 the horse is in motion, the forward propulsion by the 

 hind-legs is given through the hip-joints ; while that 

 by the fore-limbs, passes through, we may roughly 

 say, the elbow-joints. As the former impetus 

 greatly exceeds the latter, we may assume that the 

 centre of motion is a little in front of, and a little 

 below the level of, the hip-joints. To comply with 

 mechanical requirements, any pressure of the bridle 

 on the mouth must, therefore, be in the direction of 

 this centre of motion, so that the regularity of the 

 stride may be interfered with as little as possible. 



