a facility for adjusting its action, or altogether putting an end to it, without altering either buckle or strap, or even halting the horse if in motion.

As a general rule, when a horse has been once properly broken in and bitted, it should not require any contrivances of the sort: its use being continued after a certain period is an evidence of something being wrong. Sometimes this is incapable of remedy, being a consequence of some peculiarity in the animal's build, and then there is no help for it; but a good running-rein, possessing the qualities mentioned above, affords very frequently most valuable aid in the first handling, and will, if judiciously used, save the rider a great deal of trouble, the horse an equal quantity of ill usage, and, finally, simplify all questions of bits and bitting in a wonderful manner.

The best of all these contrivances hitherto invented is perhaps that known under the name of Seeger's running-reins (Schleif-Zügel), being perfectly simple, safe, and applicable to all styles of riding. M. Seeger, the justly celebrated riding-master at Berlin, and undoubtedly at the head of his profession in Europe, first brought it forward. It consists of three distinct pieces, the chinstrap, the running-rein, and the martingal. The chinstrap consists of a leather curb furnished at each end with a small buckle and strap, by means of which it is attached to the cheek-rings of the snaffle or bridoon, the entire length, including the buckles, to be 6 inches; these latter, when covered with leather, just wide enough to admit a strap 4 inches wide, and 2 long, projecting over the buckle, behind which it is sewed on to the body of the curb. This curb carries a rounded strap in rear, supporting an ivory ring which may have

an internal diameter of somewhat more than 1 inch (say 1), the external one being 1g, leaving, therefore, the thickness of the ivory about an inch.

The running-rein is in one straight piece, 81 feet long from the buckle to the point, towards which latter it tapers off somewhat, its width being otherwise that of a common bit-rein, of an inch. An 18-inch strap of the same width is sewed on behind the buckle and pierced with five or six holes. The martingal has the same contrivance, as usual, of a buckle for forming a loop through which to draw the girths; but the other end of the strap (inch wide), instead of being split into two narrow ones, each carrying its own ring, is left of its full width, and carries one ivory ring of 1 inches internal diameter and 21 external, leaving, therefore, .

of an inch for the thickness of the ivory. The usual length of the martingal from the ring to the buckle is 3 to 4 feet, the latter affording scope for adjustment; and there is, of course, a neck-strap for carrying the martingal, which is too well known to need description.

Let us now suppose the horse to be saddled and bridled with a plain snaffle, the first step will be to buckle the chin-strap into the rings of the mouthpiece, the martingal having been previously put on in the usual manner, and its length so adjusted that the large ring it carries may just reach the level of the joints of the shoulders. The next step will be to buckle one end of the running-rein into a D ring attached for that purpose to the pommel of the saddle on the near side; the other end of this rein is then carried forward through the ring of the martingal (from rear to front), from thence through the ring of the chin-strap from

left to right, and back again through the martingal ring (from front to rear), from whence it goes to the rider's right hand. It is evident that a pull on this running-rein will act directly on the mouthpiece, drawing it back and somewhat downwards towards the horse's breast-bone; the great value of the whole arrangement being, that by taking the running-rein and right snaffle-rein into the right hand, and the other snaffle-rein into the left ditto, we can place the horse's head in any position we desire, and get a pull on the horse's mouth either horizontally upwards or downwards as may seem expedient.*

The training-halter offers no obstacle to the employment of this running-rein; indeed they may be very advantageously used in combination, and afford a most perfect command over the horse's head without the slightest approach to violence, and by slackening the end of the running-rein held in the right hand, its action may be at once put an end to, unlike all other contrivances of this nature, which are too apt to get hitched. +

The use of Seeger's running-rein for race-horses is perfectly unobjectionable. It gives the rider an immense power over his horse, which may be used momentarily, to check an attempt to bolt, for instance, and immediately relaxed, or it may be kept constantly in moderate action—for instance, with a horse inclined to throw up his head too high-and all this without in

*The advantage as compared with other running-reins is, that the position of the horse's head depends on the length of rein grasped, and not on the force applied.

+ Mr Childs, saddler, St Mary's, High Street, Bedford, has patterns of the training-halter and the running-reins.

terfering with his running; on the contrary, by using this rein one may dispense with sharp snaffles or curbed bits which so frequently have that effect. Seeger himself, however, thinks it unsuited to racing or hunting purposes.

But it is chiefly in the handling of young animals, whether for the saddle or draught, that these contrivances are valuable, because they enable us to attain our objects gradually and noiselessly, as it were, although with perfect certainty; above all, they afford us the means of avoiding all unnecessary violence, or any approach to ill treatment.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LEVER-THE BIT AND CURB-BITTING--THE BRIDLE.

WITH a plain smooth snaffle there is no question of lever action; the amount of power applied to the reins is conveyed unaltered in quantity to the animal's mouth: to use a scientific expression, there is none of that mechanical advantage obtained which a mechanical power alone is capable of conferring. But if we combine Seeger's running-rein, which acts on the principle of a movable pulley, a certain amount of power applied to that rein will produce double the effect on the mouth that it would if applied to the snaffle-rein alone.

A still greater amount, however, of mechanical advantage may be obtained by means of a lever-and a bit furnished with a curb of a proper length acts as such. There are, however, several kinds of levers, and it will depend altogether on the manner in which the bit and curb are arranged, whether we obtain a lever action that is favourable to us or quite the contrary; it is therefore necessary to say a word or two on the principles of lever action.

In the first order of levers the power is applied at one end, the weight being placed at the other, and the fulcrum or prop between the two, dividing thus the lever into two arms, a longer and a shorter one. The