i;o HOW TO HOLD THE REINS. 



Major Dwyer very correctly points out that " The soldier has 

 one hand for the reins and the other for his weapon ; his 

 efficiency depends altogether on his being able to use the 

 latter with precision and rapidity, and this is an impossibility 

 unless, to use Sir Charles Napier's words, ' the steed watches 

 the edge of the weapon' that is to say, follows the lightest 

 movement of hand and heel, as it were intuitively." 



Fig. 168. Off rein taken up by right hand from position shown in Fig. 167. 



The military method of shortening the reins is unsuitable 

 to two-handed riding ; for when the horseman uses both 

 hands, he is obliged to lengthen out the off rein, in order 

 to get an even feeling on both reins, as in Fig. 168. If he 

 has now to quit the reins with the right hand, as for instance 

 when he is about to use the whip, he cannot take up 

 the reins in the left hand in the same prompt and 

 secure manner as .he could by the crossed method. It is 



