158 THE SLACK REIN 



burrows, and is apt to blunder into them with 

 disastrous results both for himself and for his 

 rider. 



But what has all this got to do with bitts ? 

 We must advance the argument to a further 

 stage. 



In the eighteenth century the EvangeUst, 

 Richard Wesley, rode on his preaching tours 

 some seventy thousand miles on EngHsh high- 

 ways. Because he could buy them cheap he 

 always used stumbling horses. As he rode he 

 would let the rein drop while he read the 

 Bible, and presently would find the stumbler 

 cured. There are some horses, he said, who 

 will stumble over their own shadows, but 

 nearly always a slack rein will cure them. 

 Then one can sell them at a better price, 

 and so make money to pay the expenses of 

 travel. 



To prevent stumbling, the range man trains 

 his horse to slack rein, and in this matter 

 reverts to an old war practice. The steering 

 of horses by the knee is most excellent horse- 

 manship. 



Because I lacked the suppleness for steering 

 by the knee it has been my practice to let the 

 rein lie on the horse's neck. If any steering is 

 needed, it is easy to have the two sides of the 



