50 HORSES AND EIDING. 



to go, you should slacken his head again, but with- 

 out speaking to him. If he goes quicker again, you 

 should repeat the process, but you should not do it 

 more than half a dozen times in succession, or you 

 ^Yill upset the horse, and he will get puzzled and 

 frightened and not know what you want him to do, 

 and then you cannot teach him any more for that 

 lesson; so that after doing this a few times you 

 should either pull him up into a walk, or let him 

 trot in the manner he is accustomed to, with his 

 mouth slightly feeling the pressure of the bit. When 

 a horse has become so tractable as to trot the pace 

 you want him to go, with his head loose, when he 

 first comes out of the stable, I should consider that 

 he has learnt a good deal — more, in fact, than many 

 horses learn in their lifetime. 



When a horse is trotting freely along without 

 being pulled at, he will carry his head higher, and 

 look better than when he is ridden in the ordinary 

 manner. Most people conversant with horses will 

 have noticed that when a horse is turned out and is 

 trotting about in a field, or when he gets away from 

 his rider from any cause, he will carry his head much 

 higher than he does at other times, and will, to use 

 a common phrase, ' show himself off more.' 'No one, 

 I should fancy, ever saw a horse stumble and fall 

 when going like this, and this is the way they ought 

 to go when they are ridden. Instead of this you 

 often see them going with their heads low, pulling 



