184 MODERN FARllIER. 



string biicliled simply to the eye of the snaffle, go 

 before the horse, leading him, as it were, along the 

 Y/all. Horses Vvill, with Qciie and patience, not be 

 very long before they vv^ork vrell in hand ; though 

 indeed never so ti'uly or delicately as under a good 

 rider. Horses v/orked well in hand look particularly 

 well coming up the middle of the school, and back- 

 ing there on the piaffer ; as also in the piaffer both 

 bent and straight, animated properly, and kept in 

 good position, their months being properly played 

 with and humoured. When horses become free 

 and familiar Vv'itli this method of working them in 

 hand, it should be done by degrees on all paces, 

 fast and slow, but ahvays without noise, hurry, or 

 cciifusion. 



Nothing determines them better than working in 

 hiand, v/hen it is well done. As the want of accu- 

 racy and delicacy is, from the great numbers, in 

 some measure unavoidable in military schools, it is 

 not amiss to teach troop horses a little their lessons 

 in hand, before the men perform them on their 

 backs. One of these strings may be used by the 

 man who holds the dHniihriere on foot, when the 

 horse is mounted ; and it is a good method to do 

 so sometimes, on all lessons and on all figures. — 

 This string, fastened as in the epanJe en dedans, only 

 that it goes immediately from the eye of the snaffle 

 into the hand of the person on foot, who must stand 

 in the centre of the circle, helps the person who is 

 mounted very much to bend him, as it does indeed 

 in all other lessons. When the horse has a rider on 

 him, only one string is necessary to be held by the 

 person on foot. In the head to the wall, croupe to 

 the wall, piaffing, &c. &:c. it must be shifted (for 

 example, in the head to the wall, &c. &c. to the 

 right) imder the horse's jaw, from through the right 

 eye of the snaffle, into the hand of the person on 

 foot, who is on the left of the horse ; for it need not 

 pass through the small ring on the head-stall of the 



