DRIVING ON FOOT. 181 



should be brought under control, in the manner 

 described in the preceding chapter. 



The method of mouthing which I have de- 

 scribed, is as applicable to " spoiled " horses, as it 

 is to animals that have never been handled. To 

 my thinking, one great beauty in it apart from 

 its immense advantage of never giving the animal 

 the chance of getting the upper hand, which he 

 might easily do, were the rider in the saddle is, 

 that the breaker who employs it, can tell at any 

 moment how his pupil is progressing, by his 

 touch on the reins, and can, accordingly, with 

 well-grounded confidence, use his own judgment 

 in regulating the amount of instruction-. The 

 man, however, who trusts to tying the horse up 

 with side- or pillar-reins to the breaking snaffle, in 

 order to get his mouth soft, must necessarily work, 

 more or less, in the dark, and by rule of thumb. 

 Instead of tying a horse up in a fixed position, 

 and thereby cramping the action of his muscles, 

 we retain them supple and ready to respond to our 



