;20 BREAKING FOR SPECIAL WORK. 



him from acquiring the habit of shying off the ball by 

 yielding his head and neck to the rein without altering the 

 direction of his body. He should, of course, be taught to 

 disregard the polo stick being flourished about him, which 

 we can do by using the rope twitch and the word " steady " 

 (see page 129), or the head and tail method (see page 169). 

 I may mention that the subject of breaking in and training 

 polo ponies is fully discussed in Mr. E. D. Miller's recent 

 work, Modern Polo, which I have edited. 



The park hack. — A course of school training will greatly 

 add to the brilliancy of this animal, in whom we require 

 particularly springy and showy action without any of the 

 exaggerated knee action of the hackney. The body of the 

 park hack should be accurately placed in the line of pro- 

 gression, out of which he should not deviate during move- 

 ment. The showy walk (which should approach the French 

 passage) and the well-collected and brilliant canter are more 

 his paces than the trot. 



The fashionable harness horse. — The " extravagantly " 

 high trot is the special pace of this animal. Although it 

 should be as lofty as possible, it must be free from " dish- 

 ing " (turning either or both of the fore feet outwards when 

 off the ground), or from any rocking movement of the body, 

 and the legs must have a certain amount of forward reach, 

 so as not to give the idea of the feet being lifted up and 

 placed down on the same spot. In this artificial gait the 

 action of the hind legs will have to be sacrificed to some 

 extent to that of the fore ones. His school work may be 



