66 THE HORSE : ITS TAMING, 



ing, he neutralizes the first action of it, which is painful, 

 and hence he becomes a confirmed puller, and at last 

 an unmanageable brute. 



Some riders depend upon this long and strong pull 

 to keep them where they want to remain, viz., in the 

 saddle. Therefore, I say, and have always said, that 

 any man may take a horse and make him perfect in 

 all respects, but he cannot guarantee him to remain so. 

 I have often said as a joke in the ring, " It's not the 

 horses that always want Galvayning, it's the men." I 

 have frequently known these pulling horses that have 

 been ridden in jaw-breaking and blood-biting bits, go 

 perfectly quiet, and easily ridden by another man in a 

 plain snaffle. That is why I condemn heavy and 

 sharp bits for colts. They spoil the animal's temper, 

 lacerate its mouth, and make the parts callous and 

 impervious to the sense of feeling, and his future 

 management a matter of difficulty. 



There is a sympathy that should make itself known 

 and felt by both rider and horse, between the horse's 

 mouth and the rider's hands, as White Melville puts 

 it in his Riding Recollections — " If you pull against a 

 post, a post will pull against you ; but if you don't pull 

 against the post, the post will not pull against you." 

 Teach your colt from the start not to take a dead pull 

 on the bit, and in good hands he will never want to 

 do so. 



In my opinion, the man has yet to be born, and the 



