SPECIAL FOBMS OF EESTIVENESS. 317 



slackening or cringing in its paces, which should be 

 promptly attacked, though not roughly. Acting merely 

 on the defensive is quite out of place in handling vicious 

 horses ; one must meet them boldly. One or two 

 promptly-administered cuts of the whip over the shoulders 

 will frequently nip any renewed attempt at rearing in 

 the bud. With all restive horses, but more especially 

 with rearers, it is essential that the regular seat should 

 not be in the least disturbed by the necessity for using 

 either whip or spur. A seat that may do admirably 

 well for riding a willing horse over the stiffest country 

 in England, may be perfectly useless for the sort of 

 work described here. 



Horses that have become confirmed rearers, and fre- 

 quently thrown themselves back with the rider, will 

 require great caution, and must be handled in a some- 

 what more methodical manner, though still on the same 

 principle. We have shown what the horse does when 

 it is preparing to rear ; let us now for a moment look 

 at it in the act of rearing. After slinking away from 

 the rider's hand and seat, so that he Uoses all hold of 

 it, the animal suddenly stiffens its hocks, throwing its 

 whole weight on them, and at the same moment stiffens 

 also its neck, and especially the throat, somewhat in 

 the position shown by the upper horse in Fig. 7, so 

 that it becomes quite impossible to get a downward pull 

 at it, and thus defies the rider most completely. It 

 is always the same story stiffened hocks and a stiff 

 neck.* The safest way of managing confirmed rearers 

 is on the lounge, without the dumb-jockey, which would 



* In the English method of handling horses, little attention is 

 paid to the horse's hocks or neck ; whilst, on the contrary, the 

 pasterns, are severely worked, which is precisely the reason why 

 school methods must be employed for rearers. 



