CHOOSING A HORSE 55 



pony ; even play him at polo if you can manage it. 

 You must get him on his hocks. Nothing is so good 

 for this as the constant cantering up and down, 

 and about, putting your legs on strong at each turn 

 to get the hocks under, and turning on the hocks 

 alone. Owing to a horse's size and weight neither 

 his fetlocks nor his temper will allow as much of this 

 as a pony. Do the whole of your training on a 

 snaffle. When your horse is trained put a severe 

 bit in his mouth, and ride him after tame pig and 

 cattle, but remember not only the trodden worm 

 but the blown cow turns, or your horse's education 

 may be all too thorough. Ride with an absolutely 

 loose rein : your horse may be afraid of the bit for 

 the first day or two, but he will soon learn that it 

 is only applied for a specific object, and that the 

 instant he has obeyed the signal he has a loose rein 

 again. He will soon become bridle-wise, and you 

 will then have a perfect -mouthed horse. By a 

 loose rein I mean one absolutely dangling. I ride 

 my own horses on the bottom bar of a mohawk, and 

 seldom have a snaffle. I do not see any particular 

 advantage in the latter if you always ride on the 

 loose rein principle. 



I had an interesting talk at dinner lately with a 

 Native Cavalry officer who had just done a winter's 

 hunting at home. He said he was astonished at the 

 different standard of training and manners required 

 in horses in England and in India. His experience 

 had been that so long as he could jump any manners 

 were passed as good enough in the English hunter. 

 Reining back, passage and turning and similar 

 qualities might be conspicuous by their absence, 

 and would call for no comment. My friend will, 

 however, I trust, pardon my calling him an extremist 



