USE OF THE SPURS. 151 



hundred pounds, when we bring the horse's 

 head half way towards a perpendicular 

 position; to fifty pounds when brought still 

 nearer that position, and to nothing when 

 perfectly placed. The pretended hardness 

 of mouth proceeds, in this case, from a bad 

 position of the head, which is caused by the 

 stiffness of the neck and the faulty construc- 

 tion of the loins and haunches of the horse. 

 If we carefully examine the causes that pro- 

 duce what is called sensibility of the flanks, 

 we will discover that they have very much 

 the same kind of source. 



The innumerable conjectures to which 

 people have devoted themselves, in attribut- 

 ing to the horse's flanks a local sensibility 

 that had no existence, have necessarily in- 

 jured the progress of his education, because 

 it was based upon false data. The greater 

 or less sensibility of the animal proceeds 

 from his action, from his faulty formation, 



