306 HORSES ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



attentive, otherwise the trace, in turning, will get under 

 the horse's tail ; and if at starting it be not properly 

 held in the hand, it may be broken by a sudden jerk. 



Sir Francis Head is kind enough to furnish us stay- 

 at-horne folks with other valuable foreign notions as to 

 anchoring and hobbling horses. In South Africa, farmers 

 and sportsmen " anchor " their horses by a lump of lead, 

 from three to five pounds in weight, carried in a small 

 pocket buckled to the outside of their near or left hol- 

 ster. To this is attached a piece of cord ten feet long 

 which, passing and running freely through both rings 

 of the curb-bit, and hanging from them like a loose 

 rein, is fastened to a D or ring in the off-side of the 

 saddle. If a horse thus anchored attempts to move on, 

 his nose is brought down to his breast by the cord, 

 which, tightening equally on both sides, acts exactly 

 like a bridle in the hand of a rider ; and as the pressure 

 of the curb-chain ceases when he stops, he soon dis- 

 covers that the best thing he can do is to stand still 

 and graze. This invention has proved to be admirably 

 adapted for farmers, for hunting and shooting, or for 

 Staff and Engineer officers while reconnoitring or sur- 

 veying. 



Not less worthy of consideration is the process of 

 hobbling, which, it appears, is alike serviceable in making 

 war, or in the far more agreeable and harmless process 

 of making love. In the countries of South America, 

 every cavalry soldier carries a pair of hobbles, not in 

 his pocket, but as an ornament dangling from the throat- 

 lash of the bridle. " Whenever a young dandy calling 

 on his inamorata is informed that she is l in casa ' (that 

 is, at home), he dismounts, extracts from his waistcoat 

 pocket a beautiful pair of silver hobbles (weighing only 

 two ounces), which by two silver buttons he affixes to 

 the fetlocks of his high-bred horse, who, switching 

 with his long tail the innumerable flies that assail him, 

 and looking at every animal that canters by him, 

 stands stockstill, until within the house all the compli- 



