PLACING THE HORSE 



is easily remedied by proper education, while the 

 underlying good quality still remains. 



BEHIND THE HAND 



A HORSE is, on the contrary, said to be behind the 

 hand when it is loath to take contact with the bit. 

 This may occur for either of two reasons. A young 

 horse may have become discouraged by being 

 ridden under a hand without tact, which has 

 maintained the contact too long, or has shaken too 

 severely. Or the trouble may be weakness of hocks, 

 haunches, loins, spine, or of the ilio-spinalis muscle 

 or the great pectoralis. 



Evidently, if the horse lacks strength in those 

 parts of its mechanism which drive its body for- 

 ward, it will hesitate to go forward against the 

 bit; and will, in consequence, be behind the hand. 

 Similarly, the horse which, at the beginning of its 

 training, was willing to enter into contact, but has 

 become discouraged, fearing the rider's tactless 

 hand and the resulting pain, is really in an analo- 

 gous condition to the weak horse. In either case, 

 the fault must be remedied, since an animal which 

 the rider cannot send against the bit is at all times 

 ready to stop and enter into revolt. If the horse is 

 behind the hand because it is badly conformed and 

 weak, training is the cure. But if the horse is well 

 conformed and strong, and still stays behind the 

 hand, the remedy is education more often for 

 the rider than for the horse. 



171 



