A horse should not only champ his bit, but should also relax his lower jaw to it (Fig. 3), which concession proves that the bending of the head and neck is perfect. With this object, when the lower jaw readily yields to the tension of the curb, we should prolong this tension until the horse completely loosens his hold on the curb, and we ought to keep touching him lightly on the side, so as to prevent him stopping (Fig. 4).

It is, of course, understood that this work ought to be done with great lightness of hand. We can gauge the sensibility of the mouth by an alternative feeling of the curb and snaffle, and can thus at once find out if the horse has a hard or soft mouth. In this manner we readily get good, that is to say, light hands, with which we can manage almost any horse by the continued play of " take and give." It is a great advantage to have good hands, which will be sufficient for all ordinary work. But we can take and give for all our life without being able to render an account of what we are doing, in which case neither the hand nor the horse makes any progress. Finally, the action of the hand would be limited to giving when the horse pulls, and pulling when he gives. This faculty may be called the possession of a bell in the hand, and is in fact the movement of a bell in all its beauty.

The well-trained hand acts in the contrary manner, because its rôle is to break in the horse, that is to say, to advance his education. It remains fixed in position by strongly closing the fingers when the horse pulls, but the moment the horse yields his lower jaw, the fingers should be relaxed with the rapidity of an electric flash.

A good hand gives when the horse takes, and takes when he gives. A well-trained hand gives when the horse gives, and takes when he takes, and that instantaneously.

In all cases we ought to guard against confounding hardness