The Crowding Horse 283 



him to his knees, stopping the other horse at the same 

 time. Continue this until he obeys the command 

 and the jerking of the Hne. 



In certain kinds of work, such as plowing, when 

 the single line is used on the leader, it is necessary 

 to employ a ''crowd stick" to prevent the off horse 

 from crowding the near one. This stick is attached 

 to the lower end of the hame on the leader and to 

 the right ring on the bit of the off horse, and is of 

 such length as to hold him in his proper place. To 

 overcome the confirmed crowder, some horsemen take 

 an inch board about six inches square and drive 

 several eightpenny nails, with sharpened ends, 

 through it, then suspend the board on the side of 

 the steady horse in such a way that when the 

 other crowds, he comes in contact with the sharpened 

 nail ends, and the punishment thus inflicted teaches 

 him to stay over on his own side of the path. 



Stripping bridle. — Certain horses have the habit 

 of stripping the bridle whenever the opportunity 

 presents itself; thus when tied to a post or rack, if 

 their bridles are the least bit too large, they slip 

 them off their heads, and when they find themselves 

 free they start to walk away, breaking the lines and 

 perhaps getting into greater difficulty. The chief 

 cause tending to produce this habit is poorly fitting 

 bridles, either too small or too large. When too 

 small, the bridle fits so tightly about the forehead 

 and at the corners of the mouth that the horse rubs 



