42 ROAD, PARK, AND SCHOOL 



violently, the rider should lean back in the saddle, 

 and keep the head of the animal elevated by short, 

 sharp pulls upon the snaffle reins from below up- 

 wards. 



Shying. If a horse, without defect in vision, be 

 in regular work, it should shy at nothing. Fresh 

 horses will affect fear or dislike of everything that 

 attracts their attention, and there are some horses 

 which have a trick of shying, and some of bolting 

 away, from objects they know to be harmless. Even 

 in the latter case punishment does no good, and, as 

 I have explained before, the fresh horse must be 

 treated with great discretion. 



It is very easy to teach a horse to shy; it is a 

 difficult thing to cure the animal of the fault. A 

 horse ' shies ' when it misses the support of a master- 

 hand, or feels too closely confined in the presence 

 of something that frightens or irritates it. That is, 

 either extreme, of too much liberty or too much 

 constraint, will cause the horse to make an effort to 

 avoid the disagreeable object. Too often the man 

 shies first, and leads the horse to suspect that it 

 is threatened with danger. By careful treatment 

 the horse will acquire so much confidence in its 

 rider that it will be afraid of nothing ; by injudicious 

 treatment the horse may be taught to suspect any- 

 thing that attracts its attention. 



