If the animal prove headstrong or sulky, he should be brought under control, in the manner described in the preceding chapter.
The method of mouthing which I have described, is as applicable to “spoiled” horses, as it is to animals that have never been handled. To my thinking, one great beauty in it--apart from its immense advantage of never giving the animal the chance of getting the upper hand, which he might easily do, were the rider in the saddle--is, that the breaker who employs it, can tell at any moment how his pupil is progressing, by his touch on the reins, and can, accordingly, with well-grounded confidence, use his own judgment in regulating the amount of instruction. The man, however, who trusts to tying the horse up with side-or pillar-reins to the breaking snaffle, in order to get his mouth soft, must necessarily work, more or less, in the dark, and by rule of thumb. Instead of tying a horse up in a fixed position, and thereby cramping the action of his muscles, we retain them supple and ready to respond to our slightest touch, by keeping them in a constant state of change, from contraction to relaxation, without, however, inducing fatigue, the effect of which, on the nerves, is to cause the muscles to work in a slow and ill-regulated manner.
After having broken the horse thoroughly to the snaffle, we may, if required for special work, break him, in the same manner, to the curb, the principles of which I have described in my book on _Riding on the Flat and Across Country_.
When one is unprovided with a driving pad made after my pattern, one may use, as a makeshift, a saddle, through the stirrup-irons of which one may pass the reins (see Fig. 44); not forgetting the standing martingale, a substitute for which may be readily made by connecting the rings of the snaffle to the rings of a running martingale, by a loop of leather, or cord.
Colonel Wardrop, who commands the 12th Lancers, shewed me a method he practises, of driving horses over jumps with long ropes which pass
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Driving on foot.]
through the stirrup-irons and rings of the snaffle, and are fixed on tightly to the girths and stirrup-irons, on their respective sides (see Fig. 45). This excellent authority on the art of training horses to safely negotiate the difficult lines of country met with in Ireland, tells me that he has found this method of great use for teaching horses to “gather themselves together” in proper style, when coming up to the big banks and ditches that may be seen to perfection in the counties of Kildare and Tipperary. For reasons which I have fully explained in this book, I would advise that the horse should, at first, be thoroughly taught to obey the indications of the rein in the manner I have described. After that, Colonel Wardrop’s plan might be useful for giving the horse a few practical lessons over the obstacles in question.