HOW TO BENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 281 



preliminary education of walking the young horse out 

 on the roads, &c., as is the excellent practice of the 

 English trainer, and therefore the remount is taken at 

 once into the riding-school to be lounged. The lounging 

 itself, too, is carried out in a different manner, for it 

 requires one or two assistants at first. One of these 

 carries the whip ; the other, usually the groom, is 

 necessary in the first stages for the purpose of leading 

 the young horse round the circle until it knows what 

 is required of it. The assistant with the whip must 

 understand his business perfectly his services are most 

 important and indispensable throughout. As a matter 

 of course, during the first lessons, a very wide circle is 

 used, and the snaffle-reins are attached loosely to the 

 rings of the surcingle, the inner one being slightly shorter 

 than the other, as it would otherwise hang slack when 

 the horse bends in the neck and body in circling. The 

 English trainer usually adopts the contrary practice of 

 shortening the outer rein, in order to prevent the horse 

 running in towards the centre ; but this object is much 

 better attained through the agency of the assistant with 

 the whip, because the great object especially in the 

 subsequent lessons, is to meet and regulate the length 

 of the stride of the inner hind leg by the inner rein, 

 which however, always must have a sufficient counter- 

 pull in the outer rein the isolated action of any one 

 rein resulting merely in a change of position of the 

 head, instead of acting on the whole side of the horse. 

 When the horse has become accustomed to circling 

 on the lounge in this manner with sufficient freedom, 

 the trainer proceeds gradually towards his ulterior object 

 of bringing out a perfectly clean that is, equable and 

 regularly-cadenced trot, by accustoming the animal to 



