226 ART WILL ALTER EVEN NATURAL FORMATION. 



2000/. If he goes fast, it would be most injudicious 

 to risk altering his style merely to make it a handsome 

 one. But the difference of carriage and mouth in 

 the hunter, hack, lady's horse, or harness horse, in- 

 creases or diminishes their value perhaps three- 

 fourths. With them, therefore, we cannot take too 

 much trouble, or exercise too much patience, to bring 

 about the desired and indeed indispensable qualifica- 

 tions of going handsomely, safely, and pleasantly. 



I have said that all horses are not made alike. 

 Now the way in which a horse would in a natural 

 state carry himself depends wholly on how he is 

 made ; and how he will carry his head depends on 

 how that head is put on to his neck, and how that 

 neck is put into his chest and shoulders. The mouth 

 in its natural state has of course nothing to do with 

 this ; but when we take him in hand, it is by acting 

 on the mouth alone that we must trust to bringing 

 the head and neck in proper position ; and indeed it 

 is acting on the mouth that enables us to perfect the 

 general carriage of the body, and to alter, if necessary, 

 the whole style of going. A man totally unused to 

 horses might think the mouth could have nothing to 



o o 



do with the action of the hind-legs : men who are 

 judges of the thing know it has everything to do with 

 it. It may be said that the mouth has nothing to do 

 with the natural formation of the neck : this is true ; 

 but it has a great deal to do, not only with the way 

 in which that neck is carried, but in positively (to a 

 certain degree) altering this natural formation. The 

 muscles and ligaments in this early stage are yielding, 

 and muscle will contract or expand from use or disuse. 

 Those muscles or ligaments that tend to bring the 

 head to an undue elevation, or its reverse, can be 



