MOUNTING. 205 



tension has been taken off the cord, we may 

 give the leading-rein to the rider, to hold in 

 his right hand, so that he can stop the horse 

 if necessary ; while we make the animal go 

 round by touching him lightly with the whip. 

 After the cord has been removed, the rider may 

 take the reins, and keep the animal, at first, going 

 round in small circles, and, then, gradually en- 

 larging them, until he can take the horse in any 

 direction he likes. 



In all my experience with numbers of horses that 

 had, for years, successfully resisted the most deter- 

 mined efforts to mount them, I have never failed 

 to accomplish this object in one lesson, by means 

 of the method just described ; nor has any horse, 

 after I have removed the cord, shewed the 

 slightest return to unruliness. The method of 

 making the horse, by the use of the rope-twitch 

 (see page 113), steady to mount, which I shall 

 describe in Chapter IX., is specially valuable for 

 this particular purpose ; while the head and tail 



