How to Refidcr Hoi'ses Obedient. 215 



his legs well back so as to get a perpendicular tread on 

 the stirrup, and holding them close to the horse's ribs 

 without screwing. A slight increase of pressure of both 

 legs here in this position always has the eflect of making 

 the horse bring its hind legs forward under its body, 

 just as the whip does ; and if, at the same time, the 

 horse's head and neck are brought up and back, the rel- 

 ative proportions of weight to be carried by the hind and 

 fore legs can be easily determined by the rider. 



Let us now suppose the remount so far advanced as to 

 enable us to dispense altogether with the lounge and 

 the whip, and hand it over to the rider alone ; in fact, to 

 be in the stage of its education corresponding to that in 

 which the English trainer takes it out for long rides on 

 straight lines. The school rough-rider, on the contrary, 

 does his work in an enclosed rectangular space,* which 

 makes all the difference in the world, because during 

 each circuit of the manege four corners have to be got 

 through — that is to say, as many changes of direction 

 made. Let us take the rider, in the first instance, as 

 being on one of the long sides of the rectangle — on 

 which Ijand is immaterial : his English confrere holds 

 his hands close together steadily down on the horse's 

 withers, just letting the animal come up to meet the 

 mouthpiece ; the school-rider, on the contrary, raises his 

 hands more or less according to the natural position of 

 the horse's head and neck, his object being, as we have 

 seen, to bring their weight back toward the hind legs, 

 which latter the pressure of his own legs tends to bring 

 forward. Moreover, instead of holding his hands 

 merely passive, he takes a rein in each hand, and with 

 a gradual but decisive turn of the wrist, meets each 

 stride of the hind leg with a gentle pull on the rein at 

 the corresponding side, working upward and backward. 



* The circus, properly so called, is only used for purposes of exhi- 

 bition. 



