156 THE HOHSE 



foot. Then he can be judiciously made to move 

 again in a more or less circular direction, until he 

 suddenly seems to understand what is wanted, and 

 leads freely. 



MOUTHIXG 



The next lesson is to mouth the colt with a bit 

 affixed to the side dees of the head-stall. Here a 

 surcingle, and the crupper off the set of harness, 

 will be requu'ed, and a rope or rein passed from 

 the bit thi'ough the back loop of the crupper, 

 which is kept in place by the surcingle. It may 

 incidentally be mentioned that a horse cannot kick 

 the operator when putting on the crupper if the 

 latter is careful to stand just behind the shoulder 

 and close to the horse, remembermg to keep the 

 animal's head pulled round slightly toward him. 



The horse should be reined up just sufficiently 

 tightly for the head to be held in its best natural 

 position. The object is to connect in the mind of 

 the animal the fact of the bit being placed in the 

 mouth necessitating the best natural carriage of the 

 head. If the horse has a badly-formed neck, how- 

 ever, no amount of reining-up can permanently im- 

 prove it. 



Great care should be taken not to rein up so 



