The Legs. 53 



Fix yourself in your seat, bring the horse's 

 head home with the curb ; and then, keeping 

 him at a halt, proceed to close your legs and 

 heels to his flanks. Steadily maintain the 

 pressure notwithstanding his fidgeting or 

 shifting to avoid it, trying not to let him move 

 forward, and taking care not to stiffen your 

 body or relax the grasp of your thighs. 

 When you can do this with perfect ease, go 

 on to practise it at a walk, trot, and canter. 

 You will soon find that the constrained posi- 

 tion of the leg, though certainly no assistance 

 to the gripe of the thigh and knee, need not 

 be allowed to interfere with it. 



Next put on a pair of ordinary road-riding 

 spurs, with blunt rowels. Seat yourself and 

 take hold of your horse as before, move him 

 forward at a walk, and then close your legs 

 steadily and touch him lightly with the spurs. 

 If he is a good-tempered, high-couraged horse 

 (and I need not say that for this lesson you must 

 not choose a dull or a restive one), he will sink 

 his croup and try to spring forward. Care- 

 fully keep him bent with the curb, so that he 

 cannot get a pull at your hand. If you do 

 this skilfully, the result of the impulse will be 



