48 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



requirements of different pupils. The best hunters have 

 necessarily great power behind the saddle, causing them 

 to move with their hind-legs so well under them, that 

 they will not, and indeed cannot lean on the rider's hand. 

 This the breaker calls " facing their bit," and the shyer 

 they seem of that instrument, the harder he pulls. Up 

 go their heads to avoid the pain, till that effort of self- 

 defence becomes a habit, and it takes weeks of patience 

 and fine horsemanship to undo the effects of unnecessary 

 ill-usage for an hour. 



Eastern horses, being broke from the first in the 

 severest possible bits, all acquire this trick of throwing 

 their noses in the air ; but as they have never learned to 

 pull, for the Oriental prides himself on riding with a 

 " finger," you need only give them an easy bridle and a 

 martingale to make them go quietly and pleasantly, with 

 heads in the right place, delighted to find control not 

 necessarily accompanied by pain. 



And this indeed is the whole object of our numerous 

 inventions. A light-mouthed horse steered by a good 

 rider, will cross a country safely and satisfactorily in a 

 Pelham bridle, with a running martingale on the lower 

 rein. It is only necessary to give him his head at his 

 fences, that is to say, to let his mouth alone, the moment 

 he leaves the ground. That the man he carries can hold 



