ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 97 



opened, and tlie ends of the rein may be laid liold of by 

 the right hand to enable the left to shorten its grasp. 

 When the hand is thus closed upon the rein, the thumb 

 shoiild be pointed to the horse's ears, the little finger near 

 upon the pommel of the saddle, and the elbow close to 

 the side, which last is a necessary consequence of the 

 above position of the hand; so that the equestrian has 

 only to look at this part and see that the thumb points to 

 the ear, with the little finger down on the pommel, and 

 he may be quite sure that his elbow is right. When the 

 hand is held in violation of this rule, the elbow is almost 

 sure to be thrown from the side, and the attitude is there- 

 fore unsightly, besides which there is less control over the 

 mouth by the action of the wrist. With the single rein, 

 the management of the mouth is easy enough ; neverthe- 

 less there ar6 various directions for the purpose, adopted iu 

 different schools, which are dependent upon altogether 

 conflicting principles. Every tyro knows that the horse 

 turns to the left by pulling the left rein, and to the right 

 by pulling the opposite one ; and the problem to be solved 

 is to do this by one hand only. This, in the single rein, 

 is easily effected by raising the thumb toward the right 

 shoulder, when the right rein is to be pulled, or by draw- 

 ing the little finger toward the fork for the left; in both 

 cases by a turn of the wrist, without lifting the whole 

 hand. But, over and above this action on the mouth, and 

 in many cases independent of it, is a movement which, in 

 trained horses, is capable of much greater delicacy, and 

 which depends on the sensibility of the skin of the neck 

 for its due performance. It is effected by turning the 

 whole hand to the right or left, without any wrist action, 

 so as to press the right rein against the neck in order to 



