THE SPURS AND THEIR EFFECTS 



or through restiveness or laziness are always try- 

 ing to escape from the rider's control. With such 

 animals, the man must, from the beginning, assert 

 his superiority with intelligent force. It is not, in 

 such cases, a question of training or education. It 

 is a question of taming, yet without creating fear 

 by excessive punishment. The rider must be posi- 

 tive, strict, and severe; but always reasonable and 

 calm. 



The result of burying the spurs in the horse's 

 flanks and holding them there is commonly to 

 inhibit the action of the great pectoralis muscles, 

 and thus to prevent the forward propulsion of the 

 body, while at the same time punishing the crea- 

 ture for an act of restiveness. The horse, there- 

 fore, finding himself unable to use his members in 

 rebellion, cannot but feel the rider's mastership. 

 But if the horse does not already understand the 

 effect of legs and spurs, surprise may throw him 

 into disorder. Moreover, the sharpness of the spurs, 

 the strength and temperament and training of the 

 horse, and its native stubbornness, all need to be 

 considered by the rider before he buries his spurs 

 in its flanks. 



A rider is said to " tickle with the spurs " when he 

 uses these instruments inopportunely and without 

 reason. Certain riders like to exhibit an ill-founded 

 pretense of knowing how to ride, and render their 

 mounts impatient or frantic by continued tickling. 

 Others, who have no accuracy of seat, let their legs 



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