HOW TO TREAT A HORSE. 29 



Unless absolutely necessary never stop a horse 

 on a hill or in a rut, so that when he starts 

 again it means a heavy tug. Many a horse 

 has been made a jibber and his temper spoilt 

 by not observing this rule. 



Above all things, be careful of your horse's 

 mouth. In riding or driving you ought only 

 just to feel your horse's mouth. Your hands 

 ought not to be rigid, like bars of iron, but they 

 ought to give and take with every movement of 

 the horse's head. Your horse's mouth then 

 becomes delicate, alive, not hard and dead. In 

 fact, try to cultivate what is termed light hands. 

 Then if sympathy exists between you and your 

 horse, you can guide him with hardly any move- 

 ment of the reins or hands. 



By driving or riding with light hands, the 

 mouth becomes so sensitive that it feels, and is 

 guided by the slightest movement of the reins. 



If your horse has what is termed a " good 

 mouth," he is much more valuable, because a good 

 horseman gets so much more pleasure in riding or 

 driving him. It is misery to handle a horse that 

 is always pulling at you, with a mouth that feels 

 dead. It is something like pulling against a stone 

 wall. Such a horse loses half its value. These 

 hard mouths, and, indeed, many evil habits are 

 often caused by the heavy hand and rough 

 methods of ignorant men in " breaking in " young 



