Leaning on the Curb, 115 



one step towards what horsemen call being " in 

 hand," or " collected ; " and grooms, " pulled to- 

 gether," though indeed the " pulling together " 

 of the groom but very distantly approaches the 

 fine poise of the Schools. 



Of all means of destroying a good mouth, to 

 allow the horse to lean upon the curb is the sur- 

 est. Avoid this by all means. But so long as 

 Nell will bring in her head and play with the bit, 

 keep her doing so at intervals. After a week or 

 two she will be ready to walk quite a stretch with 

 her head in position, and you will both of you 

 have gained something in the way of schooling 

 her mouth and your hands. You can then try 

 her on a trot, and if you can keep your seat with- 

 out holding on by the reins, she will learn to do 

 the same thing at this gait too, and later at the 

 canter and the gallop. But unless your own seat 

 is firm and your hands are light, you will only 

 be doing her future education an injury. Every 

 twitch on her sensitive mouth, occasioned by an 

 insecure seat or jerky hands, will be so much lost. 

 Moreover, your curb chain must neither be too 

 long nor too short. If too long, Nelly will not 

 bring down her head at all. If too short, it will 

 worry her unnecessarily. You can judge of it by 

 her willingness gradually to accustom herself to 

 it without jerking her head or resisting it, and 

 without lolling her tongue. 



