Page:Equitation.djvu/381

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and sound, very seldom resists the rider. But the case is exactly reversed for the horse that is weak, badly conformed, or unsound. It is for this obvious reason that I insist on the fundamental difference between the training of a horse and its education.

Evidently, then, the treatment of a hard mouth is not a question of using a more or less severe bit.

CARRYING THE HEAD TOO LOW

Porter bas it is called in French, when a horse lets its head drop below the correct position, either because of bad natural conformation, or because of weakness in the neck muscles.

HEAD TOO LOW

Sometimes the head is too large and heavy for the front hand to support. Sometimes the weakness is in the loins. Sometimes the croup is too high in relation to the withers.

Where the defect is excessive, correction is very difficult indeed. In milder cases, the imperfection in one part of the body is compensated for by over-development in another; and these the esquire will cure by progressive exercises, especially flexions of the mouth and neck. I especially