44 ROAD, PARK, AND SCHOOL 



exert the action of the severer bit if necessary. 

 If the horse makes an effort to break away from the 

 rider, or insists upon going faster than the rider 

 wishes, it may be brought to recognise the power 

 of man by being backed a few paces, and then made 

 to advance slowly. This form of mutinous conduct 

 upon the part of the horse, is the result of want of 

 discipline and work. There is no better method of 

 enforcing discipline than in gently reining back the 

 animal, and this movement is usually followed, for 

 the time at least, by complete obedience. 



Bolting is the violent effort a horse makes to 

 break away from the control of the rider. It is the 

 most dangerous of vices, as the horse in his frantic 

 rush will stop at nothing, but will blindly go at a 

 wall or over a precipice, unmindful of the severest 

 bit. I look upon this vice, an intermittent madness, 

 as incurable. But I believe that a horse trained to 

 the poise in action, as I explain hereafter, can, by a 

 determined rider, be prevented from bolting. 



A horse may run away without having ' bolted,' 

 or a bolting horse may end in running away. 

 Bolting is the quick, determined movement, usually 

 off the course and often against some obstacle, that 

 a horse makes to break away from restraint. A 

 runaway horse usually keeps along the path it has 

 been following, and will try to avoid injuring itself. 



