OVERHEAD CHECK REIN— OVERLOADING 



to keep their studs down to reasonable limits, even if by 

 doing so they may part with a good horse at a low price, 



than to incur the risk 

 of raising a number of 

 middling animals. (See 

 Breedi7tg StudSy Horse-sick^ 

 Paddocks, Pasttire.) 



Overhead Check Rein. 



— A single rein which 

 passes from the cheek, or 

 is attached to the bridoon, 

 if one is worn, up the fore- 

 head, and between the 

 ears to the pad hook. 

 (See Bridoon, Pad.) 



Overhead Check Rein. 



Overloading. — It is an undoubted fact that many horses 

 are killed annually, and at least twenty times as many ruined, 

 by being overloaded. It is not always the weights they 

 have to draw that break them down, but the rate of speed 

 at which they are worked, for a horse can get through a good 

 deal if not forced to move beyond a reasonable pace. 

 Possibly the hardest worked animals in the country are the 

 omnibus horses, a pair of which travel some i6 miles a day 

 at an average speed of 7 miles an hour with something like 

 4 tons behind them when the conveyance is full. This is 

 pretty hard work for light horses, when compared with the 

 9 or 10 miles a day at about 2 miles an hour of heavy 

 draught horses. Much, of course, depends upon the state of 

 the ground or roads over which they are worked, but horse 

 for horse the members of a team which are worked at a fair 

 pace will last longer and do their work better than those 

 which perform exactly the same duties at a faster rate of 

 speed, in spite of the fact that the latter get more rest in 

 the stable. (See Distress, Foot Poujids, Restoratives^ 



230 



