objects without noticing intermediate ones also. The head in its movements should be upright, and should turn without carrying the shoulders with it.
The forearms should make a right angle at the elbow, but only as an intermediate position to be altered either way as different effects are desired. The two wrists should be kept at the same height, the fingers facing one another and the thumbs up. If one wrist is carried higher or lower than the other, the corresponding rein will have more or less effect on the horse's mouth. The two wrists should be separated about six inches, the usual thickness of a horse's neck. If the reins are held farther apart, they will, in proportion to their separation, act more upon the bit itself and less upon the bars of the mouth, and so be less felt. If, however, the reins of the snaffle are held nearer together, they will exercise a pressure on the lips, which is efficient if not too long continued. I do not mention here bridle bits, curb chains, and other instruments of torture, long ago discarded by sound equestrian art.
The wrist joints should be kept pliable, so as not to communicate stiffness to the arms and neck. Stiff wrists, moreover, prevent the rider from feeling the horse's mouth. The thumbs should be kept up, since in this position the two hands are most uniform and readiest to affect the mouth of the horse, either when resistance is to be followed by yielding or when the rider slackens the reins. Moreover, when the thumbs are up, they press
