DRIVING ON FOOT. i8i 



should be brought under control, in the manner 

 described in the preceding chapter. 



The method of mouthing which I have de- 

 scribed, is as applicable to " spoiled " horses, as it 

 is to animals that have never been handled. To 

 my thinking, one great beauty in it — apart from 

 its immense advantage of never giving the animal 

 the chance of getting the upper hand, which he 

 might easily do, were the rider in the saddle — is, 

 that the breaker who employs it, can tell at any 

 moment how his pupil is progressing, by his 

 touch on the reins, and ca.n, accordingly, with 

 well-grounded confidence, use his own judgment 

 In reo^ulatine the amount of instruction. The 

 man, however, who trusts to tying the horse up 

 with side- or pillar-reins to the breaking snaffle, in 

 order to get his mouth soft, must necessarily work, 

 more or less, in the dark, and by rule of thumb. 

 Instead of tying a horse up in a fixed position, 

 and thereby cramping the action of his muscles, 

 we retain them supple and ready to respond to our 



