effects have to be used to counteract the fault of a horse which is unequal in its movements, and which refuses to be put straight or to stay straight. The matter is seldom taught; and the causes, effects, and corrections have been quite ignored. Authors who have mentioned rein of opposition have not explained it clearly. Frankly, I suspect that very few men have really understood it.
Unhappily, very few horses are straight when mounted, for reasons which are discussed in part under the captions, "Weight" and "Seat." But the horse with a tendency to have the spine crooked tends also to stride unequally, in order to compensate for the first defect. This we correct by means of the rein of opposition.
Suppose, for example, that, instead of walking, trotting, or galloping straight, a horse turns its haunches to the right. The haunches are apparently at fault, so we will start our problem from them. The masters tell us to push the haunches to the left with the right leg. This is an error, in that it attacks the consequence and neglects the cause. The real trouble is that the left front leg is making a shorter stride than the right. The left hind leg has, therefore, too little space for its step, and comes to the ground too soon and too near the right. This pushes the back part of the body to the right, and throws the line of motion of the right hind leg out of parallelism with the axis of the body. The rider can, indeed, for the moment, push
