84 MY HORSE ; MY LOVE 



fashion. It is obvious that a horse carrying his burden 

 can travel on as narrow a path as the rider himself, and 

 oftentimes more surely. Riding-horses swerve and shy 

 quite as much as carriage- horses ; but the former can be 

 guided to a disconcerting object and so be able to in- 

 vestigate it, while the horse that is pulling a vehicle must 

 be kept in the beaten road.' 



Is a horse more easily managed under the saddle? 



' Undoubtedly. A good rider is not so liable to accident 

 as the driver whose horses checked, trussed and tortured 

 by fashionable harness, have their natural action encum- 

 bered. Forced as their movements are into an artificial 

 gait, when they become thoroughly alarmed, the ease and 

 dash with which they can throw off all restraining bonds, 

 prove their mighty strength, and make man feel helpless in 

 his own inventions.' 



Then it is not surprising that with blinkers, or without, 

 they sometimes get unruly? 



'They know well the power or lack of it, of the hand 

 which guides them, and the voice which encourages them 

 to do their best.' 



Is the martingale an essential equipment in riding ? 



' It bears the same relation to the riding-bridle that the 

 bearing-rein does to the harness of a horse driven. The 

 latter holds up and back the horse's head to an unnatural 

 position, while the martingale pulls it down, to emphasise 

 the arch of the neck. 



' I do not consider it important in the least, and there are 

 times when the use of it is very dangerous. Riding with 

 a party of hunters one day, we came to a fast-running 

 stream into which one man plunged impetuously, intending 

 his horse to swim the distance. From the horse's struggles 



