I/2 TYING UP A REIN. 



TYING UP A REIN. 



With double reins, if the rider wishes to use only one, 

 he may put a slip-knot (Fig. 169) on the other, at the desired 

 length, so that he may have it ready to take up at any 

 moment. It should be put well forward on the neck, so that 

 the horse in extending his head, may not be liable to bear 

 suddenly on the bit to which the reins with the slip-knot 



Fig. 169. Tying up a rein. 



are attached. " The reins should never be tied in hunting or 

 in swimming a horse, since, by catching across the neck, they 

 act like a bearing rein, and oblige the horse to carry his head 

 up and his nose in. In hunting this would bring his hind legs 

 on his fences, and oblige him to leap from the top of his banks 

 and to land all fours, instead of extending himself and letting 

 himself down gently. In swimming, it obliges him to keep his 

 whole head and neck out of water. I very nearly drowned a 

 horse in this way in the Serpentine." (Colonel Greenwood?) 



