160 BITS AND BITTING. 



horse's mouth either horizontally, upwards or down- 

 wards, as may seem expedient. * 



The training-halter offers no obstacle to the employ- 

 ment of this running-rein ; indeed they may be advan- 

 tageously used in combination, and afford a most perfect 

 command over the horse's head without the slightest 

 approach to violence, and by slackening the end of the 

 running-rein held in the right hand, its action may 

 at once be put an end to, unlike all other contrivances 

 of this nature, which are too apt to get hitched. f 



The use of Seeger's running-rein for race-horses is 

 perfectly unobjectionable. It gives the rider an im- 

 mense power over his horse, which may be used 

 momentarily, to check an attempt to bolt, for instance, 

 and immediately relaxed, or it may be kept constantly 

 in moderate action for instance, with a horse inclined 

 to throw up his head too high and all this without 

 interfering with his running ; on the contrary, by using 

 this rein one may dispense with sharp snaffles or curbed 

 bits which so frequently have that effect. Seeger 

 himself, however, thinks it unsuited to racing or hunting 

 purposes. 



But it is chiefly in the handling of young animals, 

 whether for the saddle or draught, that these contriv- 

 ances are valuable, because they enable us to attain 

 our object gradually and noiselessly, as it were, al- 

 though with perfect certainty ; above all, they afford us 

 the means of avoiding all unnecessary violence, or any 

 approach to ill-treatment. 



* The advantage as compared with other running-reins is, that 

 the position of the horse's head depends on the length of rein 

 grasped, and not on the force applied. 



t Messrs. White and Coleman, 4, Bishopsgate Street Without, 

 London, have patterns of the training-halter and the running-reins. 



