THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



97 



steadfast on you, until you get near enough to 

 touch him on the forehead. When you are thus 

 near to him, raise slowly, and by degrees, your 

 hand, and let it come in contact with that part just 

 above the nostrils, as lightly as possible. If the 

 horse flinches (as many will), repeat with great 

 rapidity these light strokes upon the forehead, 

 going a little farther up towards his ears by degrees, 

 and descending with the same rapidity until he will 

 let you handle his forehead all over. Now let the 

 strokes be repeated with more force over all his 

 forehead, descending by lighter strokes to each side 

 of his head, until you can handle that part with 

 equal facility. Then touch in the same light man- 

 ner, making your hands and fingers play around 

 the lower part of the horse's ears,'coming down 

 now and then to his forehead, which may be looked 

 upon as the helm that governs all the rest. 



" Having succeeded in handling his ears, advance 

 towards the neck, with the same precautions, and 

 in the same manner ; observing always to augment 

 the force of the strokes whenever the horse will 

 permit it. Perform the same on both sides of the 

 neck, until he lets you take it in your arms without 

 flinching. 



" Proceed in the same progressive manner to the 

 sides, and then to the back of the horse. Every 

 time the horse shows any nervousness, return im- 

 mediately to the forehead as the true standard, pat- 

 ting him with your hands, and thence rapidly to 

 where you had already arrived, always gaining 

 ground a considerable distance farther on every 

 time this happens. The head, ears, neck, and body 

 being thus gentled, proceed from the back to the 

 root of the tail. 



"This must be managed with dexterity, as a horse 

 is never to be depended on that is skittish about the 

 tail. Let your hand fall lightly and rapidly on that 

 part next to the body a minute or two, and then 

 you will begin to give it a slight pull upwards every 

 quarter of a minute. At the same time you con- 

 tinue this handling of him, augment the force of 

 the strokes as well as the raising of the tail, tmtil 

 you can raise it and handle it with the greatest ease, 

 which commonly happens in a quarter of an hour 

 in most horses, in others almost immediately, and 

 in some much longer. It now remains to handle 

 all his legs ; from the tail come back again to the 

 head, handle it well, as likewise the ears, breast, 

 neck, ike, speaking now and then to the horse. 

 Begin by degrees to descend to the legs, always 

 ascending and descending, gaining ground every 

 time you descend, until you get to his feet. 



" Talk to the horse in Latin, Greek, French, 

 English, or Spanish, or in any other language you 

 please ; but let him hear the sound of your voice, 

 which at the beginning of the operation is not quite 

 so necessary, but which I have always done in mak- 

 ing him hft up his feet. ' Hold up your foot' — 

 ' Leve la pied' — ' Alza el pie' — ' Aron ton poda,' &c,, 

 at the same time lift his foot with your hand. He 

 soon becomes familiar with the sounds, and will 

 hold up his foot at command. ' Then proceed to the 

 hind feet and go on in the same manner; and in a 

 short time the horse will let you lift them, and even 

 take them up in your arms. 



•' All this operation is no magnetism, no galvan- 



ism ; it is merely taking away the fear a horse gene- 

 rally has of a man, and familiarizing the animal 

 with his master. As the horse doubtless experi- 

 ences a certain pleasure from his handling, he will 

 soon become gentle under it, and show a very 

 marked attachment to his keeper." 



REMARKS ON POWEL'S TREATMENT— HOW TO 

 GOVERN HORSES OF ANY KIND. 



These instructions are very good, but not quite 

 sufficient for horses of all kinds, and for haltering 

 and leading the colt ; but I have inserted them 

 here because they give some of the true philosophy 

 of approaching the horse, and of establishing con- 

 fidence between man and horse. He speaks only 

 of the kind that fear man. 



To those who understand the philosophy of horse- 

 manship, these are the easiest trained; for when 

 we have a horse that is wild and lively, we can 

 train him to our will in a very short time — for they 

 arc generally quick to learn, and always ready to 

 obey. But there is another kind that are of a stub- 

 born or viscious disposition ; and although they 

 are not wild, and do not require taming in the sense 

 it is genei'ally understood, they are just as ignorant 

 as a wild horse, if not more so, and need to be 

 taught just as much; and in order to have them 

 obey quickly, it is very necessary that they should 

 be made to fear their master; for, in order to ob- 

 tain perfect obedience from any horse, we must 

 first have him fear us, for our motto is, fear, love, 

 and obey ; and we must have the fulfilment of the 

 first two before we can expect the latter ; for it is 

 by our philosophy of creating fear, love, and con- 

 fidence, that we govern to our will every kind of 

 horse whatever. 



Then, in order to take horses as we find them, 

 of all kinds, and to train them to our hking, we 

 will always take with us, when we go into a stable 

 to train a colt, a long switch whip (whalebone 

 buggy-whips are the best), with a good silk cracker, 

 so as to cut keenly and make a sharp report, which, 

 if handled with dexterity, and rightly applied, ac- 

 companied with a sharp fierce word, will be suf- 

 ficient to enliven the spirits of any horse. With 

 this whip in your right hand, with the lash point- 

 ing backward, enter the stable alone. It is agi'eat 

 disadvantage in training a horse to have anyone in 

 the stable with you ; you should be entirely alone, 

 so as to have nothing but yourself to attract his 

 attention. If he is wild, you wild soon see him 

 on the opposite side of the stable from you ; and 

 now is the time to use a little judgment. I should 

 not want, for myself, more than half or three- 

 quarters of an hour to handle any kind of a colt, 

 and have him running about in the stable after me; 

 though I would advise a new beginner to take 

 more time, and not be in too much of a hurry. If 

 you have but one colt to gentle, and are not par- 

 ticular about the length of time you spend, and 

 have not had any experience in handhng colts, I 

 would advise you to take Mr. Powel's method at 

 first, till you gentle him, which he says takes from 

 two to six hours. But as I want to accomphsh 

 the same, and what is more, teach the horse to 

 lead, in less than one hour, I shall give you a much 

 quicker process of accomplishing the same endt 



