IO VICE IN THE HORSE. 



to start at any movement of the rider. A bolting- 

 horse may be prevented from indulging in its 

 vice by the rider applying both spurs, leaning back 

 his body, and raising his bridle hand. I believe 

 that any horse may be brought from moderate 

 speed to a halt, without any previous special train- 

 ing, by this method. When a horse has broken 

 away from all control, and madly gallops on with 

 his unwilling rider, there is nothing to be done but 

 to make occasional efforts to recover command of 

 the horse's mouth, for by a steady pull the rider 

 would too soon exhaust himself. If there be a 

 ' rough-and-ready ' cure for a runaway horse, which 

 I doubt, it consists in riding it to a stand-still. 

 But a determined rider can prevent the horse 

 getting away with him by using the spurs as I 

 have directed. If a horse ' shies' at an object, the 

 most injudicious thing a rider can do is to make 

 the animal face it. By turning the horse's head 

 away from the object, and pressing in his opposite 

 heel, the rider can compel the horse to pass any- 

 thing, and the bent position in which the horse is 

 placed will prevent it going in the direction it 

 wishes, that is, away from that of which it is afraid. 

 After the animal has been made to go by the object, 

 the rider should calm it by caresses and kind words, 

 and in time it will lose all fear of strange sights, 



