t t 



is, that the collar can be moved a few inches up the 

 neck, relieving the same of the weight, which is to the 

 horse, during the brief moment of removing the bridle, as 

 great a luxury, and equally refreshing, as the easing of the 

 saddle and dock before taking off altogether. 



The Bridle should first be unbuckled at the throat- 

 band, and even then it should not be pulled down, but 

 heaved off with the two hands, the fingers being placed 

 under the head-strap of the bridle behind the horse's ears, 

 which top part being brought to the front allows the bit to 

 fall from the mouth without danger to the teeth. The 

 bridle should never under any circumstances be taken 

 off, or the bit out of the horse's mouth, while it is 

 in the shafts ; many serious accidents have been known 

 to come about owing entirely to that dangerous practice. 

 An instance recently came under the writer's notice 

 where a pony and trap had been left at a public house 

 door with the bridle hanging upon the points of the 

 shafts, and a feed of corn in a bucket upon a trestle 

 before it. The pony was startled by a boy coming 

 round the corner playing with a whip top. The bucket of 

 corn and trestle were upset, and away went the animal 

 with the bridle dangling between its legs, and there being 

 no possible chance of controling the bare-headed runaway, 

 a general smash up was the consequence, and in less than 

 thirty minutes from the time of stopping to feed, the pony 

 was killed, (put out of its misery) having staked itself 

 by trying in its mad career to leap some iron palings with 

 the trap behind it, and the wonder was that several human 

 lives were not lost in their efforts to check the animal. 



In removing the Saddle or Pad the left hand is put 

 under the front, and the right hand to the dock, after first 

 throwing the breech-band (if worn) over the back, across 



