2i6 BREAKING AND RIDING 



ing-bit and makes the horse circle round him, 

 Hke a circus-horse. This teaches a youngster 

 obedience, and, if cleverly and resolutely done, 

 tires out a high-couraged horse. Unhappily, 

 lunging is frequently abused. When well done 

 it helps to make a horse, but when badly done 

 mars the temper at the beginning of schooling. 

 All these points ought to be remembered by the 

 would-be-breaker, unless he is indifferent to a 

 raw and callous mouth, which has been made 

 hopelessly bad from being jagged. 



If the nose-band is adjusted too high, it has 

 little power, and if too low it is apt to cause 

 needless pain. The eyes of colts have often 

 been seriously injured by the lunging-rein of 

 an ignorant "breaker." 



At first a colt must get used to being held 

 by the head, which induces many sensible 

 owners to provide head-collars even for their 

 foals. When the colt is used to being handled 

 all over, he is led about and afterwards driven 

 in long reins, with no conveyance attached to 

 the traces, which are tied so as not to flap 

 against his sides. 



Bad lunging is apt to produce spavins and 

 curbs, as the colt's head and shoulders are 

 forcibly hauled into the circle which the horse 

 goes round in, and his quarters are driven out 

 by the whip. 



A horse, therefore, should only be lunged at 

 a walk, until he learns to easily circle round his 

 breaker on his own account in a comfortable 

 canter. A skilled person will, single-handed, 



