286 RESTIVENESS : ITS PREVENTION AND CUBE. 



towards the horse's shoulder, he is sure to come too 

 late.* 



The corners and changes of direction must not be 

 overlooked. At first these must be got through in a 

 wide sweep, for which the lounging was sufficient pre- 

 paration. By degrees, however, this sweep is narrowed, 

 and the change of direction made more abrupt ; we 

 must therefore see how this is to be effected, and what 

 results it produces. 



When a horse moves on a segment of a circle, we 

 must consider the two inner legs as moving on an 

 interior somewhat narrower and the two outer ones 

 on an exterior, somewhat wider, curve. The difference 

 between the two, although not very great, is neverthe- 

 less sufficiently so to compel the animal to shorten the 

 strides of the inner legs perceptibly, and the shorter 

 the radius of the circle, the more perceptible is this 

 difference. When the rider is therefore about passing 

 through a corner, he will come to the young horse's aid 

 by urging forward the inner leg somewhat less than 

 the outer one ; at the same time he must bend the 

 horse's neck and head in the proposed direction, and 

 therefore he holds his inner hand somewhat lower than 

 the outer one, makes his own leg at the same side more 

 perpendicular, the outer one being brought well back to 

 sustain the action on that side. Now the result of all 

 this is, that the inner hind leg is made to bear a some- 

 what increased proportion of the whole weight during 

 the passage of the corners as compared with the straight 

 line ; and thus, by changing from one hand to the other, 

 the young horse learns to bend his hocks in succession, 



* For the same reason it will not do to rise in the stirrups, 

 English fashion, for we should miss each alternate tread, 



