48 ORDINARY RIDING. 



A horse should not only champ his bit, but should also 

 relax his lower jaw to it (Fig. 3), which concession proves 

 that the bending of the head and neck is perfect. With 

 this object, when the lower jaw readily yields to the tension 

 of the curb, we should prolong this tension until the horse 

 completely loosens his hold on the curb, and we ought to 

 keep touching him lightly on the side, so as to prevent him 

 stopping (Fig. 4). 



It is, of course, understood that this work ought to be done 

 with great lightness of hand. We can gauge the sensibility 

 of the mouth by an alternative feeling of the curb and snaffle, 

 and can thus at once find out if the horse has a hard or 

 soft mouth. In this manner we readily get good, that is to 

 say, light hands, with which we can manage almost any horse 

 by the continued play of " take and give.'' It is a great 

 advantage to have good hands, which will be sufficient for 

 all ordinary work. But we can take and give for all our 

 life without being able to render an account of what we are 

 doing, in which case neither the hand nor the horse makes 

 any progress. Finally, the action of the hand would be 

 limited to giving when the horse pulls, and pulling when he 

 gives. This faculty may be called the possession of a bell 

 in the hand, and is in fact the movement of a bell in all 

 its beauty. 



The well-trained hand acts in the contrary manner, because 

 its role is to break in the horse, that is to say, to advance his 

 education. It remains fixed in position by strongly closing 

 the fingers when the horse pulls, but the moment the horse 

 yields his lower jaw, the fingers should be relaxed with the 

 rapidity of an electric flash. 



A good hand gives when the horse takes, and takes when 

 he gives. A well-trained hand gives when the horse gives, 

 and takes when he takes, and that instantaneously. 



In all cases we ought to guard against confounding hardness 



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