its weight aloft on its hind legs. Since the best remedy is to carry the horse forward, it is correct in doing this to use legs, spurs, and whip. But these are not a corrective after the horse has already reared.
A horse which takes frankly the contact of the bit will, if the rider's hand is intelligent, very seldom try to rear. But, naturally, this contact cannot be obtained without the effects of the rider's legs to give the impulse forward. If, then, the rider's legs are able to send the horse forward, so long as the horse is under the control of their effects it cannot stop and cannot attempt to rear.
KICKING
IN executing the kick, the horse stops its forward motion, plants its fore legs firmly on the ground, and using these as a point of support, sends both its hind legs backward and up. This true kick should not be confused with the kick with one hind leg only, which is called in French ruade. In the ruade, the horse is trying to reach some object with the purpose of damaging it. A kick out with both feet may, of course, injure anything that is near enough to be touched; but it is seldom that a horse of good temper will actually try to hit a man in this way. This does not, however, hold for another horse; so that, if one animal approaches too near the hind quarters of another, the second is likely to deliver either a kick in the proper sense or a ruade. This is
