KICKING-STRAPS. 



73 



small straps. Now attach to ordinary light check-straps a 

 small steel bit, which is to be 

 independent of the driving- 

 bit ; pass them through the 

 loops above described, on top 

 of the bridle and back to the 

 check-hook in the saddle ; 

 make a little tight, and you 

 have a powerful check, which 

 will keep an ordinary sen- 

 sitive horse helpless, and en- 

 able driving many kickers 

 with entire safety. During 

 my early career I used the 

 ordinary 



KICKING STKAPS 



Showing how to make a cheap rig, 

 with a small rope, to drive a 

 runaway kicker. 



with much success. At this 

 time they were the principal 

 means of reliance for break- 

 ing kickers. I include here 

 a cut of them. 



Have made four straps, like common names straps ; two 

 long enough to buckle around the hind-legs above the 

 gambrels, and two a little shorter, so as to be in propor- 

 tion, to buckle around just below the gambrel. The 

 straps should be an inch and a quarter wide, good thick 



leather, and the buckles 

 should be heavy. Now 

 have made two D's just 

 twice as long as the straps 

 are wide. This D should 

 have the straight part a 

 little rounding, and the 

 corners not quite to a 

 sharp point. Put a long 

 and a short strap on each 

 D, and buckle them 

 The kicker kicking " straps to break a bad around the hind-legs of 



the horse ; the long strap 

 above and the short one below the gambrel, bringing 



