Tr.uxed Paces. 



28t 



METHOD OF SHORTENING REINS. 

 (Sec- tage 2?.2.) 



WALKING, COLLECTING, REINING BACK. 



Walking is one of the most important paces of a hack, especially of a town hack, and 

 it is a pace that can be very much improved by practice when the animal has any natural 

 aptitude for it. It may safely be asserted that every horse that is fit for a hack can be made to 

 walk well, that is, when gentle exercise has taken off the freshness of a young, well-bred, high- 

 couraged horse. Every riding-horse should be made not only to stand still, but to start at a walk. 



The prettiest walk is when the nag, quietly settled down, and taught by long experience 

 with a firm rider that he must not break, steps in true time smoothly along, with loose reins, 

 nodding his head. But these are exceptions. There are very few horses which it is safe 

 to leave entirely to themselves when they are fresh, without the silent monition of a rein 

 lightly but so firmly held that the least deviation from the paths of propriety brings the bit 

 to bear on the mouth. 



To walk at the fastest pace an animal is capable of the 

 snaffle rein only must be used, or the double bridle with the 

 curb rein held so as merely to indicate its presence. But in 

 the street and the Park, where the best appearance is to be 

 made by the horse, good horsemen ride on the curb, so as 

 to obtain the utmost action at some sacrifice of pace. It is 

 in this simple operation that the first experience is found of 

 the meaning of light hands, a quality of the same character 

 as " touch " in a pianist, which is important in every pace, from 

 the slowest to the fastest, which is seldom found amongst 

 bruising, brutal riders, and never amongst those who have 

 not attained a secure scat. Light hands mean the power of restraining a horse with the least 

 possible exertion of force, and indicating, by the faintest and most elastic touches of the 

 fingers, wh^.L the horseman desires to convey to his horse through the action of the reins and 

 bit, or bits. 



To make a horse walk there is nothing more stupid than ill-temper, the use of a whip, 

 or the abuse of the spur. " A good horseman," I said in my first book about horses, " knows 

 neither fear nor anger." 



If a horse is very fresh from want of exercise, the first step is to " sit down and ride 

 him " at a sharp pace until he is settled, and this may be done if there is a clean and soft 

 road or a field convenient for a hand-gallop, without in the least fatiguing your nag. Then, 

 if he is a young horse, be content with the slowest pace of walking, as long as he does not 

 "jog," or " shog," as some call it. At every break he must be stopped firmly and patiently, 

 and made to begin again. In the meantime, if the rider is a novice, he must carefully study 

 the walking attitudes of those who ride well, and seek to obtain an easy not slovenly style. 

 It may be positively dangerous to try to hold a fresh high-couraged horse down to a walk on 

 starting, although he may settle down soon afterwards, and walk with a loose rein ; be 

 satisfied if he can be kept to a fast trot over the stones until you reach an open ground. 

 If you lose your temper, and tug at the reins, hit with the whip, or dig in the spurs, the 

 high spirit of the horse may very speedily be turned into vice. He will begin to plunge or 

 kick, and if he does not succeed in dismounting his rider, will perhaps slip down, or do himself 

 some permanent injury. 



The best way of improving the pace of a young horse is to keep to a walk when travelling 



