PULLING. 443 



fix up a difficult mount of this kind in a manner that 

 will keep him under control. 



Some clever people assert that any horse can be 

 held with a snaffle ; but I am certain that pullers can, 

 as a rule, be much better controlled by a curb, provided 

 that it is properly put on. I have no faith in severe 

 bits, because the desire to pull and tear away emanates 

 from the brain of a horse, and if we hurt his mouth 

 by using a severe bit, we only succeed in making 

 him more headstrong than ever. Most, if not all, 

 young horses make frantic efforts to get away after 

 the hounds, when they are hunted for the first 

 few times ; and, until they settle down and learn that 

 fences require jumping and not galloping into, it is 

 far more difficult to hold them without a standing- 

 martingale than with one. If a horse is getting out 

 of hand, even under the restraining influence of a 

 curb, we can generally manage to turn him with the 

 aid of a standing martingale, and so long as we 

 can do that, he cannot run away, as I have found 

 when I have been placed in somewhat critical 

 situations, with my curb ineffective in preventing a 

 headstrong youngster from urging on his wild career 

 under the intense excitement of his first day with 

 hounds. The desire which a puller has to get away 

 would probably only occur in the early part of the 

 day when the starting rush is made, but if it w^ere 

 successful he would bolt among a lot of horses and 

 be almost certain to cause an accident. A cavesson 

 nose-band properly put on, will shut the mouth of a 



