TEACHING THE REIN-BACK. 201 



get his head up, it is best to stand directly behind him. 

 If he lowers it as a defence, we may rein him back with 

 one rein on the driving-pad (see Fig. 91), or, what is 

 probably the better plan, we may use a bearing-rein to 

 keep his head in proper position. Although we should in 

 no way make the work unduly irksome to the horse, we 

 should not be contented unless we get him, in this second 

 lesson, to rein-back in well-balanced style, twenty or five- 

 and-twenty yards, three or four times. Such a demand 

 will, I feel certain, be considered outrageously severe by 

 those who are unacquainted with the possibilities of the 

 long-rein system ; but it is, as I have proved many 

 hundreds of times, a thoroughly legitimate one. If the 

 horse, as a defence against the rein-back, fixes his hind- 

 quarters, we may render them mobile by cracking the whip 

 or by touching him lightly below the hocks with the lash. 

 We may also take some of the weight off the hind-quarters 

 by shortening the standing martingale. If we cannot 

 effect our purpose by these means, we may place an 

 assistant in front of the horse to threaten him on one side 

 of his hind-quarters and then on the other, while we are 

 occupied with the long reins. Or he may, while standing 

 in front of the horse, take hold of the reins, one in each 

 hand, close to the rings of the snafBe, and aid our efforts 

 in regulating the height of the horse's head and in pressing 

 him back. The presence of the assistant in front of the 

 animal will naturally tend to make him rein-back easier. 

 Although I have never found it absolutely necessary, we 

 might at this stage teach the horse the turn on the fore- 

 hand (see page 208), so as to give mobility to the hind legs. 



