74 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[CHAP. 



see to the side or behind them, are always get- 

 ting run into ; but now they can see to protect 

 themselves in the yards. A horse with blinkers 

 on is greatly handicapped, and, in case of fear 

 from noise, is a far more dangerous animal. 

 Heavy horses sometimes wear small blinkers 

 which do not hide the side view. The only case 

 in which I recommend the use of blinkers is 

 that of the livery horse that is driven by people 

 who wave the whip and hands about, and con- 

 sequently frighten the horse. This becomes 

 very apparent to anyone who drives a livery 

 horse without blinkers, holding the whip in 

 the correct manner in the hand ; whenever the 

 horse sees the whip move, it expects to be hit 

 with it. The addition of blinkers in such cases, 

 if the horse is at all nervous, is to be recom- 

 mended. I strongly recommend the disuse of 

 blinkers on nervous horses at any rate, as an 

 experiment because, as stated before, a horse 

 must see the object approaching from behind 

 that is causing him fear. 



288. Bits. The subject of bits is dealt with 

 in Chapter VII., so little need be said here, 

 except that most horses, if trained from the first 

 by a man that possesses good hands, can be 

 driven perfectly well on a snaffle-bit, or on an 

 easy Liverpool bit, with large mouthpiece and 

 the reins on the top ring. (See P. 33<z.) Bad 

 hands and ignorance are responsible for many 

 horses having to be driven in a score of different 

 bits, some of which are extremely cruel. It 

 takes two to pull, and a horse that has once 

 learned to pull can be cured of the habit by 

 patient driving with good hands. I remember 

 many instances where coachmen have stated that 

 their horses could not be driven except in severe 

 bits, who, upon being shown that such horses 

 could not only go on the simplest of bits, but 

 that they would cease to pull when such bits 

 were used, have "given in" with astonishment. 



289. Halters. A horse, when tied up in a 

 stall in a stable, must be tied up with a good 

 type of halter which must be very strong, 

 because if a horse once gets loose he learns that 

 he can get loose, and will probably try to do so 

 afterwards because he has learned that he is 

 master of the situation. There is considerable 

 danger of a horse's getting kicked or over-eating 

 himself if he gets loose at night. In Chapter 

 VIII. other methods of preventing a horse from 

 getting loose are described. 



The plain cow-collar, which consists of a 

 broad strap placed around the neck behind the 

 ears, is very secure, but is liable to spoil the 

 horse's mane. On no account must a horse be 

 tied too short in the stall. He must be able to 

 lie down in any position at perfect ease. I have 

 caught several unprincipled grooms tying their 

 horses up at night to save trouble of grooming 

 them in the morning ; such people should be 

 made to sleep standing up. A secure halter 



must have a headstall, noseband, gullet-piece, 

 and a strong throatlash. If this last is 

 done up so that only three fingers' breadth 

 remains between it and the horse's throat, 

 there is little fear of his being able to slip 

 his halter. Halters, as a rule, buckle up only 

 on the headstall, the throatlash not being able 

 to be shortened. Great care must be taken 

 not to have the throatlash too tight. If a horse 

 does not try to get free at night, it is better not 

 to use a brow-band, which will be more comfort- 

 able for the horse. One objection to this is that 

 the top of the headstall will work back over the 

 mane and perhaps damage it. whilst the brow- 

 band will keep it just behind the ears, where a 

 small portion of the mane is usually clipped out. 

 (See Sec. 237.) 



A non-slipping halter can be made, as on 

 P. 31. 



A horse gets his halter off either by putting 

 his poll under the manger or else getting the 

 slack of the rope over his poll, just behind the 

 headstall, and pulling back, thus slipping the 

 headstall off his head. Great care should be 

 taken, in making an improvised halter out of a 

 rope, that the knot is not a slip-knot, because 

 if such is used the horse may be strangled. A 

 good way to make such a halter is to make a 

 loop that will fit quite loosely over the muzzle 

 to a height of about one inch below the zygo- 

 matic ridge on the cheek-bone, then to pass the 

 rope over the poll behind the ears, down the 

 other side, and attach it to the loop. Another 

 piece should then be tied from each side of the 

 rope that passes over the poll, just behind the 

 eyes, around the jowl, to act as a throatlash. 



290. Training Gear. Some civilian horse- 

 breakers use the most elaborate and absurd 

 appliances for breaking horses. A harness horse 

 should be trained at first upon the principles 

 laid down in Chapter III., with the cavesson and 

 lunging- rein, etc., and later be made to wear the 

 harness so as to become accustomed to it. Great 

 care should be taken when first putting on the 

 crupper. Horses trained under my ideas as 

 regards crupper and the reins under the tail will 

 not mind their tails being handled at all. (See 

 Sec. 270.) But horses are often frightened and 

 made to grip anything that gets under the tail 

 by being ill-used when the crupper is first put 

 on. 



I consider that the cavesson and rein, and a 

 lunging-whip and a short cutting-whip, besides 

 the ordinary harness and a kicking-strap, are all 

 that is necessary for training a harness or saddle 

 horse. I do not believe in the use of the dumb- 

 jockey, unless the trainer has bad hands. I 

 have tried horses with and without its use, and 

 there is no doubt that a dumb-jockey cannot 

 produce the same mouth as a pair of light hands. 

 Those which contain elastic or springs are the 

 best apparatus for spoiling a horse's mouth. If a 



