232 HANDS AND LEGS (AIDS). 



to caution those of my readers who have not had much experi- 

 ence among horses, to avoid jerking the reins, as a signal for 

 the horse to go on ; because the practice of this reversed indi- 

 cation is liable to teach him to jib and rear, and will in all 

 cases more or less spoil his mouth. Its pernicious action in 

 these respects needs no explanation. This false indication is 

 habitually employed by the vast majority of persons who 

 drive horses in this country. 



1 2. Knowing the danger (to the animal's temper among other 

 things) of a horse disobeying our orders, whether wilfully or on 

 account of his not understanding them, we should as a rule 

 prefer strong and direct indications to weak and reversed ones. 

 When the reins are held according to the military method in 

 one hand with the little finger separating them (Fig. 167), it is 

 almost impossible for the rider to turn the horse by a direct 

 pull of the reins ; because he can shorten either rein only to an 

 extent equal to the thickness of his little finger, say, three- 

 quarters of an inch, which would evidently be insufficient to 

 make an ordinary horse turn his head. The trained horse 

 will however readily answer a direct feel of the rein when 

 supported by pressure of the leg in the right place; the 

 slight movement the cavalryman is able to give with his hand, 

 being quite sufficient even in the excitement of " action." 

 A free-going horse, bitted and trained for ordinary riding 

 would almost to a certainty fail to answer such a signal, if he 

 were excited, as for instance by the music of the hounds ; 

 partly because he had not been specially educated for that 

 kind of work, and also because he is not afraid to go boldly up 

 to his bit. It is evident that a horse would be useless in 

 the ranks, if he were to go up to his bridle in the free manner 

 desirable in a hunter or chaser, and thus require both 

 hands on the reins in order to control him. The hunting 

 man need not often turn sharply and has both hands at 

 his disposal, while the cavalry horse must be able to turn 



