BREAKING AND RIDING 215 



How many Grand Nationals had been ridden 

 before the great Cloister beat the record, which 

 had previously outweighted twelve stone chasers 

 from winning the best known cross-country prize? 

 Does not this appear first-rate evidence to prove 

 that thoroughbreds are not adapted to gallop at 

 topmost speed at such a cruelly heavy weight ? 



Those who are determined not to be con- 

 vinced only listen to arguments which deal with 

 exceptional horses under exceptional conditions. 

 They may be likened to people referred to in 

 that popular saying, "None are so deaf as those 

 who won't hear ! " Probably because they do not 

 wish to. 



Bearing-reins are evils; unjustified even when 

 the cruel plea of senseless fashion is urged. 



A horse that will only hold his head up when 

 driven in a bearing-rein is a slug, or at all events 

 a fraud in harness. The very fact of wearing a 

 bearing-rein is sufficient to prove that he will 

 not hold up his head sufficiently high without it. 



Perhaps he is a bad kicker, and his driver 

 does not want him to get his head down and cave 

 in the splash-board. 



This fretting custom ought to be abolished by 

 law, aided by the Royal Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Animals. 



Lunging or Ringing 



In many dictionaries this word is not given. 

 This is what a horseman implies when he lunges 

 a horse. He fastens a rope or rein to a break- 



