special Forms of Restiveness, 249 



sisting it openly. Evidently this advice is dictated by 

 the apprehension that the rearing up of the horse, de- 

 priving the rider of the usual support of the knees and 

 stirrups, will lead him to seek this in the reins, and so 

 pull the horse over backward ; and no doubt this will 

 prove correct for the great majority of riders.* But if 

 a man sits to his saddle by his thighs, and has his own 

 body in balance, there need be no such apprehension ; 

 and if he then has only presence of mind sufficient to 

 preserve a feeling with the reins during the time the 

 horse's head is passing from the position shown by the 

 lower to that shown by the upper head, fig. 7, there 

 will be a moment when it will be in the intermediate 

 position (see fig. 6, middle head), and the animal's back- 

 bone will then also have assumed an angle, not greater 

 than 45 degrees, with the horizon ; the hocks, therefore, 

 will be still bent somewhat (refer to Plate I. and fig. 4 

 to realize the mechanism of the hind leg). This is the 

 moment to screw both spurs as forcibly as possible into 

 the horse's sides^ the effect of which is, as we know, to 

 bend the hocks, if the hand be held counter ; therefore 

 the animal will, in nine cases out often, make a plunge 

 forward, and having preserved throughout a proper de- 

 gree of feeling with the reins, the rider will be enabled 

 to catch the horse in the air and bring it to the ground, 

 so that the hind legs should touch this, if possible, a mo- 

 ment sooner than the fore ones, or at least so that they 

 should get the greater part of the shock. This is in 

 itself a very severe correction, and one \}i\2^\. good school- 

 riders apply with great effect with other forms of insub- 

 ordination, not hesitating even to provoke an attempt at 

 rearing in order to have the opportunity ; if it be well 

 done it may perhaps suffice once for all. 



* The very fact of the horse ever getting the length of rearing is 

 presumptive evidence of the rider's legs being in the wrong place at 

 the time. 



