210 THE HORSE 



but, after that, until twisted hide-thong and sharp iron have converted his 

 terror of man into an ardent desire to be obedient to his will. In fact, like 

 a small nation that has unsuccessfully been contending against a great one, 

 he wishes to put an end to the horrors of war, and to sue for the blessings 

 of peace. 



" 2. If a domestic horse that has never been broken in be suddenl}^ 

 saddled and mounted, the rider has greater difficulties to encounter than 

 those just described ; for the animal is not only gifted by nature with all 

 the propensities of the wild horse to reject man, but, from being better fed, 

 he has greater strength to indulge in them; besides which he enjoys the im- 

 mense advantage of being in a civilized, or, in plainer terms, an enclosed 

 country. Accordingly, instead of being forced to run away, his rider is 

 particularly afraid lest he should do so, simply because he knows that the 

 I'emedy which would cure the wild horse, would probably kill him. In fact, 

 the difference to the rider between an open and an enclosed field of battle is 

 exactly that which a naval officer feels in scudding in a gale of wind out of 

 sight of land, and in being caught among sandbanks and rocks in a narrow 

 channel. 



" 3. Of all descriptions of horses, wild and tame, by far the most difficult 

 to ride is that young British thoroughbred colt of two or three years old 

 that has been regularly ' broken in ' hy himself, without giving the slightest 

 warning, to jump away sideways, spin round, and at the same moment kick 

 off his rider. This feat is a beautiful and well-arranged combination of 

 nature and of art. Like the pugilistic champion of England — Tom Sayers 

 — he is a professional perfoi'mer, gifted with so much strength and activity, 

 and skilful in so many quick, artful tricks and dodges, that any country 

 practitioner that comes to deal with him is no sooner up than down, to rise 

 from his mother earth with a vague, bewildered, incoherent idea as to what 

 had befallen him, or how he got there. 



" If a horse of this description and a wild one in his own country were to 

 be mounted there simultaneously, each by an equally good rider, both the 

 quadrupeds probably at the same moment would be seen to run away ; the 

 Briton for ever, to gain his liberty; the other quadruped, just as surely, to 

 lose it ! " 



Nothing can better convey to the reader the difficulties which the English 

 horse-breaker has to contend with, than this extract from the pages of Sir F. 

 B. Head, who has had ample opportunities of judging both the varieties of 

 the species which he describes. It shows the necessity for the cautious pro- 

 ceedings which I have endeavoured to describe as the proper mode of break- 

 ing our young horses, and which I am satisfied will enable the breaker to 

 perform his task in a way which will be satisfactory to his employer. It 

 may, however, be worth while to examine into the methods adopted in the 

 French school, as first introduced by M. Baucher. 



His " Method of Horsemanship " has been generally received on the 

 Continent, where the principles of the manege have always been more 

 highly prized than in this country. The author tells us, as his first 

 principle, "that all the resistances of young horses spring from a ph3^sical 

 cause, and that this cause only becomes a moral one by the awkwardness, 

 ignorance, and brutality of the rider. In fact, besides the natural stiff 

 ness peculiar to all horses, each of them has a peculiar conformation, 



