246 MARTINGALES. 



ful preventative of rearing and should be employed in preference to the 

 other; because it teaches a horse to save his mouth by bending his neck. 

 The standing martingale should, as a rule, be used only with horses that 

 require some such restraint to prevent them from star-gazing, 'chucking up 1 

 their heads, rearing, or for feats of manege riding. Its use, within proper 

 limits, for keeping a horse's head down can in no way be dangerous even 

 when crossing a country ' ; this form of martingale, with a troublesome horse 

 that requires its employment, relieves the rider's hands and arms of a great 

 deal of disagreeable exertion. The use of the standing martingale, at- 

 tached to the rings of the snaffle, is to prevent the horse from getting the 

 mouth-piece off the bars of the mouth, if he attempts to do so by rais- 

 ing his head. Therefore we should employ it lengthened out as much 

 as we can without allowing the animal the chance of shifting the mouth- 

 piece from the bars on to the corners of the mouth. Personally I would 

 never use the standing martingale attached to the nose-band ; for I have 

 always found it act much better when fixed to the rings of the snaffle. 

 Fond as I am of the standing martingale, I would advise that it should 

 never be employed when going out for a ride on a horse that is wholly igno- 

 rant of its action ; for, if he jerks up his head, he may throw himself back 

 on feeling the unaccustomed restraint. I once saw a lady, who is a fine 

 rider, very nearly killed by this accident. 



"The uses of the running martingale are: (i) to aid the hands and 

 arms in keeping the horse's head down; (2) to increase the power of the 

 rider in holding his head straight ; (3) to retain the reins in their place, and 

 to prevent either of them from getting over the neck. With the first object 

 in view the martingale may be adjusted so as to allow the direction of the 

 pull of the reins to be in a line with the top of the withers. With horses 

 which keep their heads sufficiently low, the martingale should be somewhat 

 longer, so that it may not cramp the action of the head in any way. A 

 rider, by an extra expenditure of strength, may keep his head low enough to 

 be able to dispense with a martingale for holding the horse's head down ; but 

 do what he chooses he will not have the same power to keep him straight 

 as he would have with one on. Of course I am referring to free, ' flippant ' 

 goers, and not to ' slugs.' I strongly advocate the use of the running mar- 

 tingale. If ' stops ' be not on reins which have buckles, the ends of the 

 straps (billets) of the buckles should be withdrawn out of their keepers so 



