HOW TO BENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 27? 



on the reins. Of course a judicious breaker or trainer 

 will endeavour to prevent his horse acquiring a dead, 

 hard leaning on the bit, and seek to restrain this within 

 the bounds of a firm, decided one. Under the circum- 

 stances, however, this is not an easy matter, and is 

 precisely the rock on which so many riders split, who 

 then have recourse to sawing, which frequently becomes 

 the primary invitation to restiveness. 



We may sum up the whole by saying that the English 

 method of training young horses consists in doing the 

 whole work on the forehand, leaving the backhand 

 almost totally uncontrolled to perform the simple function 

 of propulsion for all the trotting and galloping work 

 is done on straight lines ; and there can be no doubt 

 that, where merely go-ahead straightforward work is 

 demanded, this system is perfectly judicious, It is, 

 however, another question, and one already sufficiently 

 entered into in previous chapters, whether its application 

 be not too one-sided, for all saddle-horses are not 

 required to do this sort of work; and it is positively 

 objectionable in this respect, that it uses up the horse's 

 fore legs with frightful rapidity, and to an extent that 

 none but English purses can endure. 



It is, however, with its bearings on the subject of the 

 prevention and cure of vice that we have here to do. 

 Now there are certain forms of insubordination, or 

 restiveness, in which horses depend on their forehand 

 others again, and by far the greater number, in which 

 they depend on their hind legs for the purpose of 

 defying the rider ; amongst the latter we may specify, 

 for instance, rearing. Considering the whole rationale 

 of the English system attentively, one is therefore not 

 surprised to find that the forms of restiveness in which 



