328 



THE HORSE. 



bridle, either a i:)lain bit and bridoon, or snaffle and curb, the 

 latter not severe or cruel in form — or if he be uncommonly 

 light-mouthed, a iselham bit, as it is called, consisting of a snaf- 

 fle-jointed mouth-piece, without a port, but with branches and a 

 curb chain — in some cases, a simple snaffle. 



In no possible case, for a roadster, hunter, hackney, or driv- 

 ing horse, is a martingale allowable. It either indicates that 

 the liorse is not half, or half a quarter, broken — or that, in con- 

 sequence of some radical and incurable fault of conformation or 

 defect of temper, he is utterly unfit to be either ridden or driven 

 at all. Of all inventions ever made, except for a racer or a 

 match-trottei', or, in some extremely exceptional cases, a hunter, 

 for instance, whose other extraordinary qualities may compen- 

 sate for and overbalailce his want of mouth and malformation of 

 head and neck — as speed and endurance do, in the racer and 

 trotter — none is so certain, as the running martingale, to destroy 

 the mouth of the horse and the hand of the rider, rendering both, 

 alike and equally, hard, heavy, inflexible, unyielding, and void 

 of sensation. 



No horse, which cannot be ridden or driven without the aid 

 of a running martingale, is fit to be ridden or di-iven, at all, as 

 a matter of pleasure or safety. 



No man, boy, or woman, who has learned to ride by aid of 

 a martingale and snaffle, can ever, by any possibility, have 

 either a hand or a seat. He or she will sit and keep their place by 

 the hand and stirrup, instead of by the unassisted forces of the 

 body, and, depending on the hand, as on a main stay by which 

 to secure the position in the saddle, will lose all use of it in 

 guiding or controlling the animal. 



J Qie firaf tili ng, therefore, that a rider must learn, is to sit a 

 hoi-se jjerfectlj', without the aid of either stirrup or rein ; to be 

 able to move arms, legs, hands, head, trunk, and thighs, all 

 separately, and without moving the other parts, or affecting their 

 position. 



Tlien, his hand, being utterly unaffected and undisturbed by 

 any necessary movements or changes of position of his own 

 limbs or body, or by any ij-regular, violent, or awkward pertur- 

 bations and efforts of the horse, will be perfectly free to in- 

 struct, guide, control, assist, relieve, support, and, in case of ne- 

 cessity, compel the animal. 



