MOUNTING HORSE FOR FIRST TIME. 225 



ing a horse steady to mount. The head and tail plan, by 

 producing a powerful moral effect, makes the horse not 

 alone easy to mount, but also quiet to ride. We should 

 not forget to confirm, by repetition, the habit of obedience. 



The practice of all the " horse-tamers " whom I have 

 seen, or heard of, using the head and tail method, is, when 

 they suppose the animal to be sufficiently quiet from the 

 effects of this process, to get an assistant to vault on to the 

 horse's back from the side opposite to that to which the 

 head is pulled round by the cord that connects it with the 

 tail. If the cord be unconfined by girth or surcingle, the 

 rider, whether he has or has not a saddle under him, will 

 be placed in the uncomfortable dilemma of being obliged 

 to ride without any grip by having one leg pulled outwards 

 by the cord, or of having the leg imprisoned between the 

 cord and the animal's side. In either case the man will be 

 in a most dangerous position on an animal which is revolving 

 round and round with but little control over its own move- 

 ments. Without the headstall being furnished with a strap 

 or rope, which is also an improvement of mine, the breaker 

 will require to be unusually active and skilful, when the 

 animal is revolving rapidly round, to run in and catch the 

 horse by the headstall, so as to stop or diminish the rotatory 

 movement. When the leading rein is on the headstall, the 

 breaker can with perfect safety catch it while the horse is 

 spinning round ; for it will at that time swing clear of the 

 fore legs and in a convenient position to be laid hold of 



In the foregoing paragraphs of this chapter, I have 

 described methods of mounting on the assumption that the 

 breaker has had one or two assistants. If he be single- 



