CHAPTEE I. 



HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 



THERE exist, no doubt, many horses that deserve the 

 epithet vicious, in the proper signification of the term ; 

 they are, however, by no means so numerous in pro- 

 portion as many people suppose, and it is of great 

 practical importance that simple restiveness or disobe- 

 dience should not be confounded with the peculiar 

 temperament or disposition which constitutes a truly 

 vicious horse. Such an animal's temper can scarcely 

 be changed, although it may be dominated by force, 

 as, for instance, by Mr Earey's method, which, by the 

 way, was known to and practised by Major Balassa, of 

 the Austrian cavalry, forty years ago; but the over- 

 awed and subdued brute is not thereby rendered a use- 

 ful and docile servant, nor is any clue afforded us for 

 overcoming special forms of restiveness or insubordina- 

 tion we may have to deal with: and so the horse-tamer, 

 after attracting an undue share of public attention for 

 a moment, finds himself in the end neglected and 

 forgotten. 



There is, too, a danger in all these methods namely, 

 the natural tendency they have to induce riders to rely 

 on forcible measures in all cases, the result of which 

 is but too frequently to convert a simply restive horse 



