48 HOESES AND RIDING. 



them from doing tliis when you are getting on the 

 saddle, than it is to prevent them from going forward. 



If a horse is mounted a few times in this manner, 

 and you adjust yourself leisurely on the saddle before 

 you tarn him round, he will acquire a habit of 

 standing still while he is being mounted, even with 

 his head loose. 



It often happens, however, that you want to 

 mount him when j^ou are in some place where you 

 cannot put his head against a wall ; for instance, if 

 you dismount on a road. In this case you should 

 turn him with his head the way you don't want him 

 to go, and then when you have got settled in the 

 saddle turn him round. If he moves on while you 

 are mounting he will find that he always has to 

 turn round and go back again, and he will learn not 

 to try and proceed in a direction which he finds from 

 experience is not the one in which he has to go. As 

 soon as he is mounted he should walk quietly off 

 "svitli his head loose without trying to break into a 

 trot. If the horse will not do this, and keeps trying 

 to trot, it is better to let him trot gently for half a 

 mile or so at starting, till he settles down, than to 

 keep fidgetting him ; but in this case you should 

 take another opportunity of teaching him, so that 

 he may learn to walk. 



The proper time to teach a horse to walk well is 

 when he is tolerably tired and hungry and has 

 got his head turned homewards. The fatigue will 



