THE STANDING MARTINGALE. 71 



Hence, if we employ it lengthened out, so that it 

 will be just short enough to accomplish this object, 

 and no more (see Fig. 3), it will give us the immense 

 advantage of having the mouth-piece always in an 

 effective position, with but little drawback. I, here, 

 suppose that it is attached to the rings of the snaffle 

 and not to the nose-band. At first glance, it may be 

 considered that this mechanical restraint would be a 

 constant source of danger, in the event of the animal 

 getting into difficulties. I have frequently heard 

 it urged, but only by men who had not seen its use 

 practically demonstrated, that if a horse, on making 

 a " blunder" at a fence, could not extend his head 

 more than the properly lengthened out martingale 

 would allow him to do, he would, being thus 

 deprived of this supposed means of recovering his 

 equilibrium, run a great risk of falling. We may 

 see the fallacy of this argument, if we consider that 

 the only effect of this poking out of the head, is to 

 endanger the equilibrium, which becomes unstable, 

 the moment a perpendicular line drawn through the 



