m to choose his own
ground--lets him flounder into difficulties, and when there, hauls him
so that he cannot see, or exert himself to get out of them, and
expecting chastisement, the horse springs and struggles to avoid it
before he has recovered his feet, and goes down with a tremendous
impetus. If he has to cross a rut to the right he probably forces his
horse across it when the right foot is on the ground. In this case,
unless the horse collects himself and jumps--if he attempts to step
across it, the probability is that in crossing his legs he knocks one
against the other and falls. The reverse of all this should be the case.
If you have not sufficient tact to feel which of your horse's feet is
on the ground, you must allow him to choose his own time for crossing,
which will be when the left foot is on the ground.

You should habitually choose your horse's ground for him, for,
notwithstanding his often vaunted sagacity and safety, the wisest among
horses will, to avoid a moving leaf, put his foot over a precipice. This
will become as easy to you as choosing your own path in walking. If your
horse has made a false step, or is in difficulties, you cannot leave him
too much at liberty, or be too quiet with him. The only notice to be
taken is to re-assure him by caressing him, if you see that he expects
chastisement from previous brutal treatment.

I will add that you should habitually prevent your horse out-walking or
lagging behind his companions; he is either very unsociable or a bad
horseman, who does not keep abreast of his companions. Besides, horses,
being gregarious, are apt to follow one another. This should not be.
Your horse should be in perpetual obedience to the indications which
your hands and legs give him, and to nothing else. These indications
should not only decide the pace which he is to take, but deal out to him
the rate at which each pace is to be executed, and also determine his
carriage during the performance of it; that is, the degree in which he
is to collect himself, or the degree of liberty which is to be allowed
him.

FOOTNOTE:

[54-*] Of all stupid appliances of man to his horse, the most dense is
the Austrian and south German mode of driving the einspanner or single
horse or a leader. The rein goes single from the driver's hand, and
divides into two at the horse's neck. The driver, therefore, has no
power of making a distinct indication on either rein: and to turn, he
whips and jerks