Appliances for Horse-training 237 



The Running-rein was another appHance much 

 favored in the latter part of the eighteenth and the 

 commencement of the nineteenth centuries, Tyndale 

 (1797) assuring us that it was an excellent contri- 

 vance for raising and placing a horse's head when 

 he carried it too low, whereas Skeene (1807) ad- 

 vised it for the exact opposite. We learn from me- 

 chanics that, putting friction aside, the running-rein 

 doubles the power of the rider's hands, and however 

 useful on occasion this may be on a made horse, the 

 principle is fundamentally wrong for the making of 

 his mouth. It should be the trainer's aim gradually 

 to make the colt respond to the slightest touch of the 

 reins, and not to haul at an improvised system of 

 pulley. 



Martingales are of two sorts, running and 

 standing; opinions are more divided on the value of 

 this appliance than on that of any other. Some 

 fine cross-country riders will seldom be without a 

 standing martingale on practically every horse, and 

 amongst these may be mentioned Colonel Rivers 

 Bulkeley, the late Empress of Austria's hunting 

 pilot. We may take it as an axiom that some 

 horses are so constructed about the head and neck 



