General Rules. 



227 



his stall and turn round, a good foundation is thereby 

 laid for the further treatment, and the trainer will do 

 well to follow it up himself precisely in the same man- 

 ner, giving the animal a handful of oats, a piece of 

 bread, or a lump of sugar, which most horses are very 

 fond of, whilst others prefer common salt. When you 

 have got thus far, let the groom lead the horse out into 

 a convenient enclosed space : at first it will be best to 

 put nothing further on it than a snaffle, a surcingle and 

 a cavesson. When on the ground^ the trainer may ap- 

 proach it quietly, and, giving it some tit-bit, make much 

 of it, and then, with the assistance of the groom, fix the 

 reins of the snaffle loosely to the rings of the surcingle, 

 and firmly attach the line to the centre ring of the ca- 

 vesson, carefully avoiding all compulsion. When this 

 has been accomplished, gather up the lounge-line in a 

 neat and regular coil in your left hand, so that if the 

 horse makes a bolt it may run out without entangle- 

 ment ; and seizing the line about three or four feet 

 from the cavesson-ring with your right hand, place 

 yourself in front of the horse, the groom standing behind 

 you. 



Before proceeding further let us consider for a mo- 

 ment what position restive horses generally assume at 

 the moment they defend themselves. In almost all cases 

 it will be found that they gather their legs under their 

 body, sinking their croup, which may be seen from the 

 position of the tail, getting their head and neck well 

 down, and futti7ig their back up like an angry cat. If 

 the reader will now refer to Plate I., and compare this 

 with fig. 4, he will at once see what the object of this 

 position is. The horse's body is bent round the centre 

 of motion (fourteenth vertebra) like a bow pulled to the 

 archer's ear, ready to exert the whole of its elastic 

 power. If the arrow be once discharged, your control 

 over it is gone — so, too, if the horse makes the plunge 



