112 BREAKING AND TRAINING 



sure that the horse will remember the reason of its 

 application. 



Consideration of the whip naturally leads us on to 

 the subject of spurs and their uses. For bringing a 

 horse "up to his bit " these are essential. They 

 are valuable in cases where one requires to 

 keep up a leg-weary horse and to quicken the 

 paces of a slug. It is no part of their duties, on the 

 other hand, to assist in making a horse turn on the 

 hind quarters. 



Spurs, to be used with good effect, should be 

 applied just behind the girth. 



It is by no means an essential of a good pair of spurs 

 that they should be more than ordinarily sharp. 

 Indeed, a rider can " convey as much " with a blunt 

 pair as with highly sharpened instruments. Those 

 who like to get an acute point on their spurs labour 

 under the delusion that the important thing in these 

 appliances is their capacity for torture. How utterly 

 wrong such an idea is may be seen from the fact that 

 experienced horsemen very seldom make use of their 

 spurs at all. 



At the same time, no matter how little you are 

 going to make use of spurs, it is always advisable that 



