20 THE BKIDLE BITo. 



when the reins are shortened as the mouthing progresses. 

 In the future degrees of mouthing and breaking in, in the 

 progress of which we are to be led or guided in the man- 

 agement of the pupil, when disposition and temper are a 

 study, a well set up horse has his mouth on a level 

 with the line of his back ; but while we cannot change 

 the natural angle of a neck, we can improve it a little as 

 to grace, whatever may be the angle. This is to be at- 

 tended to in the first lessons in mouthing. There is 

 nothing better calculated to expose the '^lunk-head" 

 than the usins: of all sorts of contrivances to make him 

 hold his head up, and thus try to play carriage-horse 

 with a plow -horse. 



FIRST DEGREE. 



The colt is now patted, caressed and turned loose into 

 a yard or paddock where he can walk about playing with 

 his bit, and where he feels disposed to make friends with 

 any person he can reach by walking up coaxingl}^ ex- 



Fig. 2. — SECOND LESSON IK TRAINING. 



pecting or asking, in horse pantomime, to take the thing 

 off. ^Ye can fancy how he feels, and how charitably we 

 should feel towards him while he is studying his A, B, C. 

 In this way he learns to yield to the pressure of the bit, 

 and becomes so sensitive to the least pull of the reins 

 that the motion of his tail will affect the crupper and 

 communicate the touch through the reins to his mouth. 

 We are now making a mouth for a horseman, not for a 

 mere rider who depends on the reins for his seat. Resist- 



