General Principles. 119 



the rider's legs, and throwing his weight backward or 

 forward, that it becomes possible to make the horse 

 alter the conditions of his own equilibrium, by bringing 

 his hind legs more under him, or the contrary. In like 

 manner it is possible, supposing the pull to be horizon- 

 tal — which is, by the way, the normal direction for a 

 well-set-up horse for cavalry purposes, as we shall pres- 

 ently see — to concentrate the lever action on one of the 

 hind legs in preference to the other, by simply throwing 

 our weight slightly to the same side, which enables us 

 to fix, as it were, certain legs to the ground, or detain 

 them longer in contact with it, setting the others free, 

 and determining with accuracy the mode and the mo- 

 ment of their employment. Many horse-breakers do all 

 this by a sort of instinct. In fact, if they could not do 

 it, they would scarcely ever succeed in handling a horse ; 

 but there are very few uneducated riders who compre- 

 hend precisely the rationale of these processes, and are 

 capable of effecting them in all cases with certainty, 

 which is, however, indispensable to success in the hand- 

 ling of young horses, or retrieving the mistakes that have 

 been committed by others with older ones. 



We may say, then, that the art of bitting and bridling 

 is a very useful and essential one, because it enables us 

 to avoid the infliction of pain, whilst it secures to us a 

 perfect control over the horse's movements. It consists 

 in enabling us to exercise the mechanical action of the 

 reins in the proper degree and the right direction, for 

 every horse and for ever}^ movement. 



The influence of good and judicious bitting and bri- 

 dling on the breaklng-In and training of horses is incal- 

 culable, whilst ignorance on these points, and abuse of 

 these instruments, are a very frequent cause of restive- 

 ness, and of the ruin of young animals, especially of 

 highly-bred ones with their delicate organizations. A 

 coking race-horse may be set down pretty nearly with 



