ZI2 Resflveness : its Prevention and Cure* 



lish trainer, and therefore the remount is taken at once 

 into the riding-school to be lounged. The lounging 

 itself, too, is carried out in a different manner, for it re- 

 quires one or two assistants at first. One of these carries 

 the whip ; the other, usually the groom, is necessary in 

 the first stages for the purpose of leading the young 

 horse round the circle until it knows what is required 

 of it. The assistant with the whip must understand his 

 business perfectly — his services are most important and 

 indispensable throughout. As a matter of course, during 

 the first lessons, a very wide circle is used, and the snaf- 

 fle-reins are attached loosely to the rings of the surcin- 

 gle, the inner 07ie being slightly shorter than the other, 

 as it would otherwise hang slack when the horse bends 

 in the neck and body in circling. The English trainer 

 usually adopts the contrary practice of shortening the 

 outer rein in order to prevent the horse running in to- 

 ward the centre ; but this object is much better attained 

 through the agency of the assistant with the whip, be- 

 cause the great object, especially in the subsequent les- 

 sons, is to meet and regulate the length of the stride of 

 the inner hind leg by the inner rein, which, however, 

 always must have a sufficient counter-pull in the outer 

 rein — the isolated action of any one rein resulting merely 

 in a change of position of the head, instead of acting on 

 the whole side of the horse. 



When the horse has become accustomed to circling 

 on the lounge in this manner with sufficient freedom, the 

 trainer proceeds gradually toward his ulterior object of 

 bringing out a perfectly clean — that is, equable and regu- 

 larly-cadenced — trot, by accustoming the animal to trans- 

 fer a portion of its own weight from its fore to its hind 

 legs, without thereby checking its forward impulse more 

 than is exactly necessary. This is easily done by gradu- 

 ally shortening the snafl^le-reins ; and if the horse carries 

 his head too low, by adding bearing-reins, for which 



