LIGHT HANDS. 227 



closing your luiiid upon tlicm. This gives a finn hold of both 

 reins, in such a form that a twist of your hand will shorten either 

 rein, quite enough for guiding purposes. Adjust the reins to 

 such a length that you can feel the horse's mouth, with your 

 body upright, and your rein hand about eight inches in front of 

 your lowest rib. 



537. — The lighiness with which you must use the reins, 

 will depend upon what horse you have to deal with, or rather upon 

 what other persons have been doing with the same mouth. One 

 horse will rear, and run, or fall backwards with a pull that another 

 horse will not notice at all. One driver will teach his horse to 

 stop, or guide, with a pull that might be given witii the finest 

 cotton thread, whilst another will compel the horse to draw the 

 carriage with his mouth, or what is still worse, teach him to go 

 faster when his mouth is jerked with the reins. Your business 

 will be to find out how little pulling will stop, restrain, or guide 

 your horse, and use no more than you find necessary to effect the 

 object you desire. 



r)38. — Never use the reins for anything but their legitimate 

 purpose, and that is to guide or restrain, never to urge or to 

 punish. Watch the effect of each guiding pull, and desist before 

 your horse has diverged quite far enough ; don"t pull him too far 

 and then back again. Keep your horse up to a lively sense that 

 whenever you pull a rein you mean something, and never let him 

 be inattentive to any signal. If he is not too free to bear a whip, 

 touch him lightly on the left shoulder, if he does not instantly 

 answer to the right rein, or on the right shoulder, if he neglects 

 the left rein. This will soon make him attentive to the reins, 

 even thcugh his mouth has been made hard. 



o39. — Let your right hand always be ready to assist with 

 the reins if necessary, and in any emergency take a rein in each 

 hand. Such cases will constantly arise with a young or ill-broken 

 horse. A horse that has been whipped for shying will often 

 make a long, dangerous plunge, and a gallop to one side. Here 

 mischief is often caused with blinker.", by holding the horse's 

 head round towards the object that alarms him, and away from 

 some real danger upon which he may be blindly rushing. In 



