Breaking Yearlings. 129 



REMOVING THE BRIDLE. 



When the bridle has to come off, just as much care 

 should be exercised as when it was being put on. If it were 

 pulled carelessly over his ears, he would most probably duck 

 his head, thereby facilitating the poll-piece being brought 

 over his ears ; but the instant he felt the pressure of the bit 

 on his mouth, he would either rear up or swerve sideways, 

 and one of two things would be certain to happen. If the 

 man hung on to the bridle, the yearling's jaw and teeth 

 would get a painful wrench; if the man let go (which he 

 had better do, as the lesser of two evils), the yearling, with 

 the bridle hanging from his mouth, would be plunging 

 round his box, too panic-stricken for the moment to open his 

 mouth and let the bridle fall. The result will be that the 

 next time the bridle has to be taken off, the colt is on the 

 qui mve for a repetition of the bungling, and it will require 

 great care and no little skill to restore his confidence and 

 prevent him going from bad to worse. The horse is a very 

 intelligent animal, but all the same is very prone to un- 

 reasoning panics. A very good illustration of this equine 

 trait is seen when an inquisitive foal is investigating a piece 

 of paper it has discovered in the paddock. From smelling 

 it proceeds to nibbling ; a puff of wind lifts the paper, like a 

 live thing, into its face, and, with a " whouf " of terror, it 

 is away with the rustling thing tightly held in its clenched 

 teeth. It will wildly career round the paddock, trying to 

 escape from the fluttering horror, being quite unable, in its 

 blind panic, to realise that it has only to unclench its teeth 

 to be at once rid of the fearsome thing. 



To return to the yearling waiting to be unbridled. The 

 first step after taking off the ca^esson is to put on the head- 

 collar. The chief operator, facing the yearling, grasps the 

 cheek pieces of both head-collar and bridle in either hand ; 



