been just said, that this instrument may be used with advantage by those who wish to train on the English system. What we have here given is merely a sketch of so much of the school system as suffices to bring horses into obedience-in fact, the A B C of the method —as it would lead us altogether beyond the limits we have proposed to ourselves to go further than this into the detail of manege-riding, even if we felt ourselves competent to do so, which is far from being the case. Our object was to show by what means, within almost every rider's reach, perfect control may be obtained over the horse's head, neck, and hind legs, and this because it is by the aid of these members of its body, especially the last-named ones, that the vicious or insubordinate horse is enabled to defy its rider.

Up to the point at which we have now arrived it will have been most advisable to use a snaffle, either alone or in combination with Seeger's running-rein, which enables us, whilst we lift the horse's neck and head by the upward and backward pull on the snafflereins, to limit exactly the degree to which this elevation takes place. When the neck, and with it the head, have been got into the desired position-which is, we repeat, always that in which the horse trots perfectly "clean" and in "obedience"-the next step is to get the head into its proper position with regard to the neck, and this is done by means of the curbed bit.

What sort of bit should be selected, and how it ought to be put into the horse's mouth, has been already fully explained, and all that will be further necessary is to accustom the horse gradually to this in precisely the way pointed out already for getting it to accept other limitations of its freedom. If all this be

P

done carefully, skilfully, above all, patiently but resolutely, the result will be a horse moving in complete obedience to the will of the rider, at all degrees of speed, with perfect ease to itself, and without apparent effort on the rider's part; for the animal will have learned to modify the propelling and bearing action of its hind legs in accordance with the pressure exercised by the rider's legs, whilst the lever action of the head on the neck produced by a properly-fitting and carefully-adjusted bit being transmitted directly to the anterior extremity of the spinal column, and indirectly through the medium of the reins towards the centre of motion, will regulate the amount of action most effectually. The two figures of Plate V. illustrate in different senses what we have here endeavoured to convey by words. The upper one shows a horse whose hind legs are subject to no efficient or direct control, the action both of the bit and of the rider's legs being concentrated altogether on the forehand through the diagonal tread on the stirrup and the pull on the reins directed upwards towards the rider's neck. The lower figure, on the contrary, shows a horse whose body moves under the perfect control of the rider: the tread on the stirrup is vertical, the pull on the reins not far from horizontal, and directed towards the rider's seat and the common centres of gravity and motion. Both figures sit nearly exactly on the same part of their respective horses. The great difference between the seats lies in the position of the leg from the hip, and especially from the knee, downwards; whilst the great difference in the carriage of the two horses lies in the respective positions of their necks.

Some of the other

plates illustrate the same thing in different ways.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL RULES FOR THE TREATMENT OF RESTIVENESS.

THE first and most important rule to be observed is, to ascertain the cause of the restiveness, and the circumstances under which it was first displayed and is usually repeated. This alone will frequently suffice to. suggest the proper remedy, as it will also show us how vicious habits may be best prevented, especially with young animals.

It is worse than useless to take your horse to the street-corner, the crossroads, the bridge, the railway crossing, or the house, &c., where it is in the habit of offering opposition to your will, as this only leads eventually to a trial of strength, in which the horse is al ways superior. You must choose a more favourable ground-namely, intelligence-in which man ought to be superior to the brute creation, which, however, by no means precludes the necessity of administering judicious punishment when necessary, and altogether excludes the idea of tamely truckling to the animal's insubordination.

The principal causes of restiveness are to be sought, either in some physical defect of conformation, in the condition of the animal, in its disposition, or in its temper, and sometimes in a combination of two or more of these.

With young animals especially, defects of conformation-as weak backs, hind quarters, or something abnormal about the head and neck-lead them into insubordination in self-defence. Want of ability to do the work demanded of them, in consequence of defective condition, will produce the same effect both in young and old horses; starvation is, therefore, in most instances, a positively injurious instead of a curative process. No doubt a horse's temper may be subdued to a certain extent by this means, but then it becomes unfit to do work, so that nothing is gained in the end. As regards disposition, some horses refuse their work from sheer sluggishness; others, again, from timidity or irritability. This latter is very frequently the case with mares, especially at certain seasons of the year, and may be very often remedied by putting them to stud for one or two years. It is obvious that one method of treatment is not applicable to these very different cases. Finally, a merely passionate temper requires different management from a dogged one; whilst sheer vice is the most difficult of all to deal with, and usually a consequence of injudicious treatment. When all this has been well considered, and the cause or causes of restiveness ascertained, one can begin to work with some chance of success-otherwise not.

The second general rule is very easily deducible from the first-it is this: avoid giving the horse an opportunity of resisting your will successfully, so long as it possesses the means of doing so that is to say, until you have acquired, by the means already described, complete control over its movements. Therefore have your horse led into a riding-school or some enclosed space where it has never shown restiveness, and do your work

there, and after each lesson dismount again, loosening girths, &c., also caressing the animal, if obedient, and avoiding to push it prematurely to the verge of resistance, trusting rather to gradual progress than to violent measures. All horses are very susceptible to, and grateful for, kindness.

As an enclosed space is not always available, it will be well to point out what can be done without it, in case of necessity. Some horses refuse to leave their stable either from natural sluggishness or indisposition to leave their companions. A man on foot armed with a whip will often succeed in driving them away, but in this case it is his will and not yours that has prevailed, and therefore little real progress is made. It is much more advisable in such cases to lead the animal away to some distance, taking with you a nosebag with some oats, of which you give a handful now and then. You may after a time mount your horse, and when on its back give it a handful of oats from the saddle before attempting to go farther, getting its head, of course, in the proper direction. If you find this not to succeed at first, dismount again rather than risk a conflict, lead the animal out a couple of miles, and give it the whole contents of the nosebag at some convenient place, taking each day a different road, and never feeding twice in the same place. You may always ride home, and this will be your opportunity for acquiring control over its neck, head, and hind legs: the more it hurries back to its stable, the better will you be enabled to do this work.*

*It will be well to dismount at some little distance from the stable and lead the horse home, never repeating this operation in exactly the same place.