TRAINING FOE DBAUGHT. 259 



wheels behind them, they must go " or something to 

 that effect, for the quotation is from memory. What 

 is meant to be said, is, that the bearing-rein is a very 

 useful part of the harness for many ladies, and also 

 gentlemen who are not professed coachmen, and even 

 for the latter with certain horses, and that it should not 

 be sacrificed either to outbreaks of spurious sentiment 

 or a desire for notoriety. 



The crupper is still more dangerous, being by far the 

 most usual primary incitement to kicking in harness. 

 Under the saddle this bad habit is unpleasant enough, 

 but in harness it is quite intolerable and most dangerous. 

 The writer has quite recently had some painful ex- 

 perience of the danger of trusting to the crupper in 

 harness, or even using it at all with mares, especially 

 such as have once had foals ; his own and the carriage 

 of a lady friend were kicked to pieces by two such mares, 

 although there was a breeching in each case. Without 

 the crupper, even after the accidents had occurred, both 

 mares went perfectly quietly. It may be said, that it is not 

 necessary to abandon the crupper totally, on account of 

 some exceptional cases like those just mentioned. The 

 reply is : Why retain it if it can be safely dispensed 

 with ? One of the most obvious uses of this part of the 

 harness is that it affords a sort of counter-check for the 

 bearing-rein. Now one of the uses of the latter to which 

 allusion has not been made, is in the case of kickers to 

 get their heads and necks well up, for by this means 

 they are prevented from throwing their weight on their 

 fore-hand, which a horse must do in order to get his 

 hind legs perfectly free for kicking. Unfortunately, the 

 kicker is pretty sure to resent the crupper, and the 

 cure of the bearing-rein becomes a provocative to further 



