28 THE HORSEMAN'S MANUAL. 



cause him to play with and champ the bit, and encourage 

 him to raise his head, and by degrees, lighten himself in 

 front. The colt must be kept attentive, and up to the bridle, 

 by a gentle pressure of the calves of both legs, so as to teach 

 him to lift his foot up, and place it to his front, but no rough 

 aids are to be applied, such as the whip or spur : for the 

 rider must still bear in mind, that he has a young and un- 

 tutored thing to instruct, and consequently, he ought to be 

 very cautious and kind in his treatment; for it is as absurd to 

 expect that the young horse can understand or answer the 

 indication of the hand or leg, before he has been taught to 

 do so, as it woidd be for a schoolmaster to expect a child 

 to read and spell, before he had learned his alphabet ; and it 

 is no less barbarous, to punish the former for his ignorance, 

 than the latter. Therefore, as the child's first lessons ought 

 to be simple and easy, so ought the colt's, who is but a child 

 of another species ; and all that ought to be demanded from 

 him at first is, to walk straight to his front, and not place one 

 foot to the right, and the other to the left, which he is sure 

 to do, if not restrained by the rider's hand, and at the same 

 time, urged on by the pressure of his legs. I consider the 

 walk of great importance, as it is the foundation of all the 

 other paces ; for if a horse does not walk well, he will very 

 rarely be perfect in any pace. 



The rider must take care that the colt is not kept at 

 work so long at any one time as to tire him. He must also 

 pay great attention to his hand, for much of the success in 

 training depends on this ; the reins must never hang loose ; 

 neither must they be pulled, as if the rider had some great 

 weight to sustain ; but let him imagine that he has a piece 

 of thread in his hand, or a hair of the horse's mane, and 

 that he does not wish to break the one, nor pull out the 

 other. To enable the reader to understand, the sort of 

 feeling he ought to have on the horse's mouth, let him 

 fasten a piece of thread to something, that will yield to the 

 hand, for instance, the top rail of a light chair ; and if by 

 an even and steady feeling of the thread, he can raise the 



