218 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



venicnt. Favour every inclination of the horse to touch 

 you with his nose, and always follow each touch or commu- 

 nication of this kind with caresses and gentle words. By 

 repeating the same words in a kind, steady sort of voice, he 

 will soon learn to know as well when fear, love, or anger 

 prevails, as you know your own feelings, two of which, fear 

 and anger, a good horseman should neoer feel. Afler you 

 have succeeded in h;indlinghisears,heniay be very cautiously 

 haltered, and the bridle then carefully put on. Proceed by 

 stroking and caressing the head, neck, sides, and back of 

 the horse to his tail, and then his legs and feet, until he will 

 allow himself to be rubbed and handled all over, and his 

 feet lifted without betraying any nervousness or anger. 



All this operation is not magnetism, or galvanism; it is 

 merely taking away the fear a horse generally has of man, 

 and familiarizing the animal with his master. As the horse 

 experiences a certain pleasure from this haudling, he will 

 soon become gentle under it, and show a marked attach- 

 ment for his person. 



Some horse-tamers recommend that all horses should be 

 thrown in the manner I shall presently describe, in order to 

 obtain perfect obedience. They must be taught to fean 

 love, and obej', the two first of which must be obtained be- 

 fore we can expect the latter ; and it is by this philosophy 

 of obtaining fear, love, and obedience that wc may govern 

 any horse whatever. 



If thehorae ia of a stubborn and vicious disposition, and 

 has not that regard or fear of man it is desirable he should 

 have, if when you enter the stable he lays his ears or turns 

 his heels to kick yon, a few sharp cuts with the whip must 

 be given, quick and with precision, about the legs, pretty 

 close to the body, just sufficient to frighten him, and no 

 more. If you wish in this way to frighten him, you must 

 do it at once ; but never go into a pitched battle with 

 the horse, and whip him until he is infuriated, for you had 

 better not touch him at all; it will do him no good, but an 

 injury, to strike a blow, unless you can frighten him. As 

 soon as you have so frightened him that he will pay some at- 

 tention to you, approach him again, and caress him a good deal, 

 and then put the halter or bridle on; but a horse of this 

 nature should have been haltered before, if practicable. 

 What is now to be done is to implant in the animal, with- 

 out pain or flogging, a full and undoubting knowledge of 

 the superior physical power which the intellect and inge- 

 nuity of man places at his disposal. This ia generally ac- 

 complished by throwing the horse in the following manner : 

 Fasten a strap round the pattern of the left fore-foot; then 

 taking the other end of the strap in the right hand, and 

 with the left over the neck, take the olf-siderein of the bridle ; 

 then by pulling it, and lifting the foot at the same^time, the 

 horse will be brought to the ground, if he be not a very 

 powerful one. Or the following plan, if the operator prefer, 

 will answer the same purpose ; it is frequently adopted by 

 professionals in the Western Siatea for throwing very power- 

 ful animals. It consists in raising one of the fore-feet of 

 the horse, doubling the knee, and keeping a strap aro nd 

 the fetlock, fastenin;? the foot close to the arm or shoulder. 

 The horse then stands on three legs. Having ne.xt put on 

 a surcingle, pass a long strap through it, fastening one end 

 round the fetlock of the other fore-foot. Attach the other 

 to the surcingle when the animal is down, .so close as to de- 

 prive him ol the use of the limb. 



When cither of the above courses has been adopted, the 

 horse is confiaed to the ground very nearly in the altitude 

 represented in the Illustrated London News, entirely power I 



less, in which position he may be caressed or handled as the 

 operator thinks proper. 



If he has much fear of any particular object, or there is 

 anything that it is wished to make him accustomed to, it 

 may be now introduced ; an umbrella, for instance, may be 

 opened and shut near his face. And by every practicable 

 method teach him —what men and horses are slow to learn 

 — that imaginary dangers cause more fear than realities- 

 This may be done by firing a pistol, beating a drum, and 

 many other experiments. This once accomplished, he sub- 

 mits to the necessities of the case ; his spirit of opposition is 

 broken ; and by similar treatment he may be taught many 

 things that it is almost impossible to impart by any other 

 sj'stem extant. S. E. 



SP.\KE THE OWLS AND SAVE YOUR 

 WHEAT! 



The following sensible letter was addressed to the Times in 

 favour of the Barn Owl 



Sir, — In your impression of the 9th inst. I saw a eensible 

 letter headed " An Owl's LsrJer," from Mr. Ellis, of Leicester- 

 shire, who, 1 make no doubt is a benign gentleman, from his 

 advocating the cause of a valuable and much persecuted bird, 

 viz , the white, or barn owl. Many sportsmen give an indis- 

 criminate order to their keepers to destroy all vermin but the 

 fox, and among them (in many cases in the ignorance of both) 

 the poor owl is ranked. The consequcrce is, in some districts, 

 they are nearly e.xtiuct, and where this is the case the stacks 

 and barns swarm with mice. Last summer I witnessed the 

 getting in of a small stack of wheat ia Shropshire, which the 

 owner supposed would yield enough for his family, of wife and 

 three servants, far eight or nine months. All that he got from 

 it fit to send to the mill was 4 J- buihels. 400 mice were 

 killed, and aa many more, we supposed, escaped. These ani- 

 mals, as well as young rats, require vegetation and water 

 At dusk they come out, and out at the same time comes the 

 owl. No doubt they were created by an all-wise Providence 

 to keep these Terrain imder, as the rook is for the destruction 

 of the wireworui, and the toad for slu^s. If it were not so we 

 should be catcti up. They know by instinct how to go about 

 their calling bttier than we do. If the rook and owl do pilfer 

 a little at times 7/hen pinched by hunger, the labourer must 

 have his hire; and with all our sagacity we cannot master 

 them like they can. The cat kills more game in a season than 

 the owl in his lifetime, and the farmer, with salt and chemicalst 

 which cost him a good deal of money, cannot keep the wire- 

 worm out of his land. 



In former days, in the country, they had .the " owlert" hole 

 in their barns, as regularly as the pitching hole, for his ingresB 

 and egress, many of which I find are stopped up. During five 

 summers in the vicinity I have mentioned, I have only seen one 

 owl skimining the meadows at nightfall. This year an unfor- 

 tunate one flew over the cricket-ground at dusk one evening, 

 when the first thing that occurred to a young sportsman was 

 to fetch his gnn and shoot him. This is being worse than 

 people we call barbarians, for in India they religiously, and by 

 law, protect two useful birds — the Brahmin kite and the adju- 

 tant. In Barbary the stork is safe, where they say, " On the 

 houses they choose for their nest no evil conieth." 



I remain, your most obedient servant, 



London. Orbilius. 



