preceding one, is applicable only to horses which are imperfectly broken. When a horse is well broken, he never breaks into a pace which we do not want him to adopt.

If a horse does not readily take to the trot, we should not be too ready to think he is lazy or bad-tempered. The fault is often due to the fact that the rider's hands are bad for a sensitive mouth, because they are either too heavy or they move about too much. It may happen that the bit is too severe,^[1] or that the horse's mouth is sore, from having been bruised. Also, the horse may be suffering in his loins or other parts, and his reason for changing the pace may be only to relieve himself. In all these frequently occurring cases, the best remedy is to remove the cause.

In place of first putting the blame on the horse, which is only natural, the rider ought perhaps begin by trying to find out if he himself is not the culprit.

The following is an excellent means of finding out if soreness of the mouth is the cause of the horse not trotting true. Instead of allowing him to bear on the snaffle, leave its reins perfectly loose and catch hold of a good-sized handful of the mane near the middle of the neck, and draw it towards you. Horse dealers use this plan every day.

The trainers of trotters, whose only object is a maximum of speed, generally let their horses take a very strong bearing on the hand. The regularity of the pace and lightness of mouth are of little matter to them. Their horses, being impetuous, always pull very hard, and the rider, on his part, pulls no less vigorously on the mouth ; because he thinks that the more he pulls, the faster will the horse go. This is a great error ; because, by pulling too strongly on the mouth, we throw the weight of the body on the hind quarters, and we