LONG-REIN DRIVING. 199 



If the horse be inchned at any time to make too large 

 a circle, we can cause him to describe a smaller one by 

 drawing on the inward rein and slackening off the outward 

 one, the proper amount of feeling on which we should 

 gradually restore according as we gain control over the 

 animal. Sometimes the horse, to avoid the action of the 

 reins, decreases on his own accord the size of the circle 

 on which we are driving him. To nullify this defence, we 

 should feel the outward rein the stronger of the two and 

 should drive the horse away from us, so as to get more be- 

 hind him than previously, and should then gradually lead 

 him off by the inward rein into the desired circle. If 

 he shows " fight," which he will very seldom do with the 

 long reins, we may have to rein him back (see next page), 

 turn him from one side to the other, or threaten him with 

 the lunging whip. 



The whole of the long-rein work should, as far as possible, 

 be done on the circle ; for that is, as far as I can see, the 

 only way by which the driver on foot can preserve a light 

 feeling on the reins. If he drives the horse straight on in 

 front of him, he can hardly escape, for the greater part of 

 the time, from keeping too heavy a pull on the animal's 

 mouth. The objectionable practice of driving youngsters 

 on foot for miles along a road, as may be seen in full 

 operation at Newmarket and other training resorts, is a 

 fruitful cause of the dead mouths and habit of boring 

 possessed by the majority of race horses. The animal, 

 to relieve the bars of his mouth from the constant and 

 painful pressure of the mouthpiece, naturally gets his chin 

 into his chest, in order to transfer a portion of the pull of 



