300 EESTIVENESS I ITS PEEVENTION AND CURE. 



weight being more thrown inward, the back is flattened 

 and the hocks bent, instead of being stiffened as before. 

 This soon brings the animal to stand still, which, how- 

 ever, should not be permitted ; on the contrary, it must 

 be made to go backwards in obedience to the cavesson 

 one or two steps, the head well up ; which done, reward 

 it by suffering it to go ahead and repeat this backing 

 process until it goes willingly forward, when it may be 

 handled as already directed. 



In applying this method when on the horse's back, 

 care must be taken to use each hand and heel (spur) 

 in unison, "stopping" with the latter the backward 

 tread of each hind leg alternately on the off and near 

 sides, and not suffering the horse to put one hind foot 

 to the ground too far away from the other, for one hock 

 is then sure to be stiff. The pull on the rein must be, 

 of course, upwards and backwards, at the side corre- 

 sponding to the hind leg you want to act on, and only 

 upwards at the other side. If the rider hurries the 

 horse back, fails to sit perfectly upright in the saddle, 

 and makes a muddle of the action of his hands and 

 heels, there will always be danger of the horse rearing 

 up and falling back ; in fact, this special form of 

 restiveness is very often called forth by injudicious 

 management of a ^backing horse ; whilst, on the other 

 hand, making a rearer rein-back in obedience is one of 

 the best remedies we have for rearing. 



To prevent misapprehension, it is necessary to explain 

 how it is that the spur will stop tfte hind leg and 

 limit its action, which is simply because the effect 

 of the spur or heel being always to make the horse 

 advance the hind leg at the same side when the animal 

 is backing, this becomes, in fact, equivalent to stopping 



