RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



bridle at all. But equine education is usually 

 conducted on a very different system to that of 

 Monsieur Baucher, or either of the above-named 

 gentlemen. From colthood horses have been 

 taught to understand, paradoxically enough, that 

 a dead pull against the jaws means, " Go on, and 

 be hanged to you, till I alter the pressure as a 

 hint for you to stop." 



It certainly seems common - sense, that when 

 we tug at a horse's bridle he should oblige us by 

 coming to a halt, yet, in his fast paces, we find 

 the pull produces a precisely contrary effect ; and 

 for this habit, which during the process of 

 breaking has become a second nature, we must 

 make strong allowances, particularly in the hurry 

 and excitement of crossing a country after a pack 

 of hounds. 



It has happened to most of us, no doubt, at 

 some period to have owned a favourite, whose 

 mouth was so fine, temper so perfect, courage so 

 reliable, and who had so learned to accommodate 

 pace and action to our lightest indications, that 

 when thus mounted we felt we could go tit-tupping 

 over a country with slackened rein and toe in 

 stirrup, as if cantering in the Park. As we near 

 our fence, a little more forbidding, perhaps, than 

 common, every stride seems timed like clockwork, 

 and, unwilling to interfere with such perfect 

 mechanism, we drop our hand, trusting wholly 



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