Page:Equitation.djvu/382

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recommend the progression: flexions, followed by mobilization of the front and hind hands in place. If this work is done with perseverance and ability, the esquire will demonstrate by his success the truth and value of his art.

This defect occurs very often in horses in the United States. The inbreeding of the native stock has tended to make the loins weak; and since a horse, in order to carry its head high, has to shift some of its weight from the fore to the hind legs, weakness of the loins tends to prevent this and so to make the head hang too low. Moreover, the theory, widely held in America, that the natural way for a horse to eat is off the stable floor as if he were cropping grass, tends to stretch the muscles which hold up the head, and so make the horse heavy upon the hand.

CARRYING THE HEAD TOO HIGH

TO porter la tête au vent is to pivot the skull at the atlas region, and swing it upward into a horizontal position. The head thus carried, neither the curb bit nor the snaffle bears upon the bars, but merely pulls upon the commissure of the two lips, pressing these against the first molar teeth.

The cause of the fault may be too severe a bit, too short a curb chain, too heavy-handed a rider, or too injudicious and severe punishment, which has produced a moral revolution in the horse and made it try to escape the man's control. In these cases,