208 RESTIVENESS: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE. 



a comparatively mucli easier task to bring back truants 

 originally handled in this manner to habits of obedi- 

 ence, than those that have been accustomed in their 

 youth to the English laissez faire method. 



It would be very easy, perhaps more to the taste of 

 a certain class of readers, to lay down certain rules for 

 this or that form of restiveness, and say, do this, if a 

 horse rears, and that, if he rubs your knees against a 

 wall, or insists on going home when you want to have a 

 ride, but we have no faith in ready cut-and-dry receipts, 

 and abhor all empiricism most thoroughly ; moreover, 

 there is plenty of it to be found, by those who prefer 

 it, in most books on this subject. The real truth of 

 the matter is this : whatever particular form of restive- 

 ness a horse may have recourse to " to defend itself," the 

 one great patent fact in all cases is disobedience ; and 

 therefore the one great object to be attained is com- 

 plete mastery over the animal's movements, and not 

 merely over its body by means of straps and ropes. 



We have stated that the English system of handling 

 young horses is less likely of itself to produce insubor- 

 dination directly, whilst the school system may, if 

 abused, tend to this result. On the other hand, we 

 must rely on the latter for the correction of restiveness ; 

 and the object of this chapter being to endeavour to 

 show how vice may be prevented and cured, it seems 

 advisable to lay before the reader a brief general sketch 

 of both systems, pointing out, as we proceed, what is 

 useful for our purpose in each, as also the means by 

 which the one may be made to work into the other. 



In the English method the first step is usually to 

 put a very thick, and consequently very gently-acting, 

 snaffle into the young horse's mouth, over which a 



