290 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



We have left one of the most important "don'ts" to the 

 last: Don't ride a horse a rod with a perfectly slack rein, 

 no matter if you are tired and the horse is too. This is a 

 very common error. Instead keep always a light touch on 

 his mouth. In this way, after you have ridden even a 

 tough-mouthed horse at a walk as well as at a trot, you will 

 be surprised to note that he will soon begin to answer to a 

 very light pull, and finally that an almost imperceptible 

 touch of the reins will guide him. Horses get the notion, 

 if you ride them with a slack rein at a walk or slow trot 

 and take them by the head when going fast, that the slack 

 rein means to go slow and the pull back to go ahead — 

 just the contrary of what you really intend. This style of 

 riding is of course, therefore, the best way to turn horses 

 into pullers, and is one of the worst habits a rider can 

 get into. For the same reason don't let your hands 

 drop stationary in your lap. Give your wrists perfect free- 

 dom to enable you to keep a uniform touch, which, of all 

 things, a horse seems to prefer you to do. If you have 

 been in the habit of riding with your hands rigid you will 

 be surprised to notice what a give and take your hands 

 must make to follow the natural oscillation of a horse's 

 head. Nothing you can do will improve your own hands 

 more than to ride horses when at walk, and at all times, for 

 that matter, in this style. Practise on the way to the meet 

 and covert, especially when walking a horse ; try with the 

 least amount of effort possible to make him cross to the 

 other side of the road and back, or move from the road to 

 a side-path. You will find in time you have made a most 



