Page:Equitation.djvu/389

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ions of the neck only as they are dependent upon flexions of the lower jaw.

Some horses, nervous and excitable by nature, sometimes champ their bits because of their own energy and impatience. This is not so much a fault as a proof of energy, which properly directed becomes one of the qualities of a good horse.

STAMMERING

STAMMERING is a contortion of the horse's mouth which occurs when the rider's hand asks the direct flexion. There should be a feeling of square contact before the flexion, which, as the mouth opens, should pass into a sort of honeyed sensation in the rider's fingers. This should be exactly square and equal. If, however, one of the bars does not cede precisely like the other, but holds the contact when the other has yielded completely, the horse is said to stammer. The same word is used, also, when the horse grinds, gnashes, cracks, snaps, or slaps its teeth.

The horse's nervousness, irritability, or impatience is what makes it casser la noisette; and the correction is by obtaining the complete direct flexion of the lower jaw. A young horse, at the beginning of its education, is pretty likely to stammer, and must be excused. But the trainer must take care that the stammering does not become a habit, since, when once fixed, it is difficult to cure.

On the other hand, this cracking of the teeth