FIRST RIDING LESSONS 17 



torturing the animal they ride. This, like every- 

 thing else, may be learnt much easier in early life, 

 and a boy should never allow himself to get into 

 the habit of hanging on by the reins. The first 

 thing is to remember that a horse's mouth is both 

 delicate and sensitive, to be made hard and callous 

 only by our bad usage. If a boy by a stretch 

 of imagination will think that the reins are made 

 of thread, and that a hard pull will break them, 

 he will get into the way of touching them lightly. 

 When you are first learning to ride, your natural 

 instinct prompts you to clutch at anything that 

 may preserve your balance, and the reins in your 

 hand will of course come first. This is what you 

 must avoid. Never use the reins for that purpose, 

 but rather hold on to the pommel if your equili- 

 brium is threatened. 



I should always advise a boy to use a snaffle 

 bridle, and parents should never provide a pony 

 that cannot be ridden in that bit. I would even go 

 further, and say that no man ought to be allowed 

 to use a curb bridle unless he has fairly good hands. 

 The curb, which to an accomplished horseman 

 is an assistance in the higher art of equestrianism, 

 is, in the grasp of the heavy-fisted, an instrument of 

 torture to the animal he rides. The bars are the 

 sensitive part of the horse's mouth, and the use 

 of the curb is to bring the head down, so that 

 the bit falls on those bars. Now the poor animal's 

 only protection against heavy hands is to get the 

 bit in the corner of the mouth, where there is 



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