206 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



of fact, pulls the weight back of him with his mouth, 

 and not with his breast and shoulders. This they do 

 under the impression that such a dead pull is needed in 

 order to "steady " the horse. This method of driving 

 I regard as radically and superlatively wrong. It 

 would tax the ingenuity of a hundred fools to invent a 

 worse one. The fact is, with rare exceptions there 

 should never be any pull put upon the horse at all. A 

 steady pressure is allowable, probably advisable ; but 

 any thing beyond this has no justification in nature or 

 reason: for nature suggests the utmost possible freedom 

 of action of head, body, and limbs, in order that the 

 animal may attain the highest rate of speed ; and reason 

 certainly forbids the supposition, that by the bits, and 

 not the breast-collar, the horse is to draw the weight 

 attached to it. In speeding my horses, I very seldom 

 grasp the lines with both hands when the road is 

 straicrht, and free from obstructions. The lines are 

 rarely steadily taut,' but held in easy pliancy, and 

 used chiefly to shift the bit in the animal's mouth, and 

 by this motion communicate courage and confidence 

 to him. I find, that, by this method, my horses break 

 less, and go much faster, than when driven by men who 

 put the old-fashioned steady pull upon them. I know 

 of no writer'who expresses my ideas, in the main, so 

 accurately as the writer whom I have just quoted : — 



'' In all his work, the colt is to be taught to go along 

 without being pulled hard. His mouth may be easily 

 spoiled for life by teaching him to tug at the bit now ; 



