Horse-Breakino-. 99 



the maddening struggles for liberty made by a four or five 

 year old who, for the first time in its life, has felt the restrain- 

 ing hand of man on it. Lunging the animal and tying it 

 up, so as to make it champ the mouthing bit, are all that 

 is generally done before putting up a stable lad, who, as a 

 rule, hangs on to the head of the colt or filly, without at- 

 tempting in any way to teach it to go in an easy and well- 

 balanced style. Although ignorant of the true principles 

 of breaking, I knew as much as my neighbours, and perhaps 

 felt my deficiencies in this respect more keenly than they 

 did. Lunging in the English way I always abominated ; 

 for I knew that by throwing too much weight on the horse's 

 forehand, it was a fruitful cause of injury to back tendons 

 and supensory ligaments, and by making his hind feet move 

 in a larger circle than his fore feet describe, it forces him 

 to go in an awkward manner. I may here remark that if 

 an attempt be made to remedy these defects, as is done in 

 Continental maneges, by side reins, the outward one of the 

 two will have to be shortened more than the inward one, 

 and the animal will have his head turned to the right when 

 he is being circled to the left, and vice versa. This, I need 

 hardly say, is wrong ; for a horse should of course have 

 his head in the direction he is proceeding. Up to this time 

 I knew nothing of the further development — which I have 

 since then worked out by myself — of long rein work in teach- 

 ing a horse to circle, turn, rein back and passage in a well- 

 balanced manner. Such improvements I acquired only after 

 much practice in the breaking ring and after a careful study 

 of high school riding. As I could get no reasoned-out ex- 

 planation of the principles involved in tying up a horse with 

 a mouthing bit, for the object of giving him a good mouth, 

 I would not employ it ; as I have always been averse from 

 trying experiments in the dark. Thanks to Mr Moore, I 

 had a fair idea of the best way to teach a horse to jump, 

 before putting a rider up. From the foregoing observations, 

 my readers will see that my weak points in breaking, at the 



