'HANDS' AND OTHER MATTERS 117 



faulty, and the habit had become chronic. Once 

 more it was a complete failure, and did much more 

 harm than good. Kindness, firmness and " tact " 

 is, I am sure, the way to master and be master of 

 the horses we want to train. 



Shying 



I have often been asked, also, what are the 

 correct "aids" for shying. I see horses ridden 

 wrongly so often on these occasions, I feel it is 

 a point that may be of interest to many of my 

 readers. 



If left to himself, a horse naturally turns his 

 head to the object, and in doing so his quarters 

 fly out across the road. The result being that, 

 instead of having his body parallel with the road, 

 it is transverse to it. 



And it is this position we wish to avoid. Many 

 riders accentuate this, in believing that it is neces- 

 sary to make the horse look at the object at which 

 he is shying, and so pull the inward rein. But 

 this is the wrong way. The rider should, on the 

 contrary, pull the outward rein, so as to keep the 

 horse's head straight in the direction we wish him 

 to go, and put a strong pressure on the outward 

 leg, so as to keep his quarters from flying out. 

 In other words, supposing the object happens to 

 be on the left of the road, the rider should pull 

 the right rein, and close the right leg, the object 

 being, throughout, to keep the horse parallel with 

 the sides of the road the whole time. If we desire 

 to let the horse have a good look at the object, so 



