they admit that a horse should have ‘the use of his head’ at certain times, yet they do not know where to draw the line, although nothing is easier to draw, if common sense were appealed to.
The cart horse should always have the free use of his head at a walk, as it should and does govern his stride; and if a rein of some sort is necessary for carters to lay hold of occasionally, the measure of the length of that rein is easily found. It is just the length that will allow a horse to use his fullest exertion up hill without bearing upon it. To this they object again that a rein of that length would hang unequally on the sides of the horses’ necks and be troublesome and unsightly. This only shows them to be short of inventive faculties. They have only to sew on a ring just at the double of the reins, at their determined length, and hitch this ring on the hames, when they would find the reins to hang equally and gracefully, and always ready to be caught hold of; although the best carters lay hold of the cheek strap, above the bit, and thus manage their horses better than those who take their hold below the bit.
We won’t quarrel over the last point; but, in the name of common sense, let a horse always have his natural stride—it is essential to his economical work. Yet cart horses are to be seen, in town and country, pegging away with reduced strides, expending on a four-mile journey the same exertion that they would, if allowed, only use on a five-mile one. Their owners handicap them.
