The statement may be advanced, that men with really fine hands will gain nothing from the employment of the standing martingale. I entirely dissent from this; for it is impossible for any man, however delicate his touch may be, or strong his arms, to prevent, as this martingale will do, the animal from getting his head up, and thereby successfully resisting control, for the time being. I may mention that many of our finest Irish riders are its devoted admirers.
When a horse pulls hard, he will, almost invariably, try to advance his chin further than the standing martingale—at a proper length, let it be understood—will allow him to do. Hence, this amount of restraint will always be a direct saving to the arms; while it will be taken off the mouth, and the controlling indication afforded, the moment the animal brings his head back into its natural position. I need hardly explain, that the horse being unable to bring forward the bars of the lower jaw, will try, when resisting the action of the standing martingale, to advance his poll as much as possible, by bending the joint connecting the lower jaw to the head, and that by which the head is attached to the neck.
If the standing martingale be fixed on to the nose-band, it will fail to act in the manner described; owing to the fact that the pressure thus exerted on the nose by this strap, causes little or no pain; unless, indeed, it be specially arranged to produce this effect, as in the way described on [page 217].
Nose-bands.—The use of the nose-band is to prevent the horse relieving the bars of some of the pressure of the mouth-piece, by opening his mouth; an action on his part which will tend to render this pressure oblique, and to transfer a portion of it to his poll.
CHAPTER III.
HORSE-CONTROL.
The breaking enclosure—Making a rope-halter—Haltering a loose horse—Making a loose horse stand still—Taking up a fore-leg—Holding up a fore-leg—Tying up a fore-leg—Blindfolding a horse—Applying the halter-twitch—The rope-twitch—The head-stall twitch—The bridle-twitch—The strait-jacket—Lifting up a hind-leg—Gagging a horse.
The breaking enclosure.—In order to carry out the system of breaking horses, it is a great advantage to have a proper enclosure, of about 20 yards square, with walls around it about 7 ft. high. The ground inside should be quite soft, so that horses which are made to lie down on it, may not run any chance of hurting themselves.
I may here impress on the reader the danger there is to the breaker of having any one standing right behind him when he is handling vicious horses; for, in such a case, if the animal make an offensive movement, the man will probably knock up against the other, and thus fail to get out of harm’s way.
Making a rope-halter.—The simplest way to do this is to take a half-inch rope, about 9 yards long; make it double for about 3 ft. 6 in.; put a knot on the doubled part, so as to form a large loop, in which make a small loop, for the leading rein to pass through. The second knot should divide the large loop, so that the head-piece should be about twice as long as the nose-band. The halter will now be ready to be put on (see Figs. 4 and 5). The nose-band may be made sufficiently long, and the loop through which the loose end passes, tight enough to prevent the nose-band and leading rein (the free end of the rope), forming a running noose, which might hurt the horse. Or, if required, a knot may be made with the leading rein at the ring through which it passes; so that the nose-band of the halter may not squeeze the horse’s jaws together.