THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 103 



approach tlieir legs or feet, for fear of cold. Such bar- 

 barisms have vanished before the lio-ht of common sense ; 

 but it is now very common to see horses with their 

 bridles so put on, that they would be nearly as useful 

 appendages to their tails as to their mouths. Much 

 depends upon suiting a bridle to the horse's mouth. The 

 patent Segundo is generally approved for pullers ; but 

 what is delight to one is madness to another. I had 

 once a horse absolutely frantic, almost ungovernable, be- 

 cause he had taken a dislike to a plain smooth Pelham, 

 without a joint — a bridle much used in Hants. The 

 horse was so violent during a run with the Oakley, that 

 I was compelled to ask one of those excellent fellows, a 

 Bedfordshire yeoman, to change bridles with me. We 

 had to twitch his ear before we could touch his mouth ; 

 but, as soon as the exchange was effected, he became 

 as perfectly temperate as he always was o-n all other 

 occasions. 



One half of the horses, at the covert side, have the 

 throat-lash buckled so tight, that by no possibility can 

 the animal, without choking, carry his head in a de- 

 sirable position. The groom is less to blame than 

 yourself for suffering it. Rider (I will not say horseman) 

 and horse are at variance all the day, both are sufficiently 

 uneasy, and when the latter is condemned as a pig-headed 

 brute, how might the observation reflect upon the 

 former ? See that your girths, without being too loose, 

 are not too tight. With a breast-plate, a saddle remains 

 in its place with slacker girths than without, and there 



