Page:Equitation.djvu/184

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with the snaffle. Cross the left rein of the snaffle to the right hand, holding the two always equal. With the snafle reins, maintain the position, head up. Take the reins of the bit in the left hand, separating them by the first two fingers, the ends passed over the forefinger and held by the thumb. Make contact with the snaffle. Shift the contact from snaffle to bit. Caress with the right hand; or, if that is occupied, with the voice. Continue this exercise for five minutes. For another five minutes, change the contact back to the snaffle. Do three minutes of fingering alternately with the two hands, followed by two minutes with the reins of the bit and snaffle both in the right, while caressing with left hand and voice. (Figure 19.)

For the second lesson of the fourth day, take the snaffle reins in the right hand, while the left hand holds the reins of the bit, but without effect. Make contact with the right hand. Shift the contact to the left hand, making the same effects. If, now, as you finger with the right hand, the horse champs the bit, begin fingering also with the left, then change to the right alone. Then follow with three minutes of fingering with the bit, helped out, if necessary, with the snaffle; three minutes with the snaffle; then two minutes with the bit. Dismount.

If the flexions have been done correctly on foot, this work of obtaining contact with the two bits alternately will be sufficient to secure, by means of fingering, a flexion of the lower jaw, which will, center