154 



on the reins for the maintenance of their seat in 

 the saddle ! It is held by some writers that horses 

 never voluntarily throw themselves back over, and 

 there is a good deal of truth in the argument because 

 they are generally pulled over unconsciously by the 

 rider, who becomes excited and loses his presence 

 of mind. At the same time the writer has occasion- 

 ally seen young colts throw themselves over in play 

 when turned into a field for exercise. 



HOW TO CURE A HORSE OF REARING. 



Numerous methods have been suggested of curing 

 a rearer, such as smashing bottles between his ears, 

 felling him down with the butt end of a stick, fixing 

 him down with straps, and many others too numerous 

 to mention. None of them, however, will prove of 

 much benefit in a permanent sense. When the 

 horse is felled down, for instance, he is necessarily 

 insensible to the punishment inflicted, and when he 

 regains his feet he is just as likely to rear as ever. 

 A horse may be tied down to the ground to prevent 

 him rearing with a fair amount of success so long 

 as he is stationary ; but this method serves no prac- 

 tical purpose because to get any work out of him 

 he must be in motion. It is impossible to fix him 

 to anything else to keep him down. Fixing his 

 head to the girths or to his own pasterns will not 

 prevent him rearing. Such a process not only tends 

 to aggravate the propensity to rear, but is exceed- 

 ingly dangerous to the horse as well. 



