HORSE-BREAKING BY KALMOUKS 85 



ineffectual struggles which he made to get up during the 

 succeeding quarter of an hour, took all the nonsense out of 

 him, and when I at last allowed him to arise, he stood 

 before us as a horse which needed only due repetition of 

 discipline to become a thoroughly reformed character. I gave 

 him after that, a lesson with the long reins and wound up by 

 getting Dick to ride him quietly about and turn him in 

 whatever direction he wished. General Derfelden was quick 

 to perceive that the feeling of powerlessness to buck which 

 the animal experienced when Dick was in the saddle, was the 

 best possible means for ensuring the horse's future good 

 behaviour. The General was delighted with the breaking 

 and was in such excellent spirits, that it at last began to dawn 

 on my dull comprehension that the cause of his previous 

 depression was his conviction that I had nothing new and at 

 the same time useful to show. He told me in the most 

 generous manner that I had entirely converted him, and 

 said all sorts of nice things about the work. 



After my part of the play was over and after I had taught 

 some of the Cossacks to do the haltering trick with a long 

 stick, at which they proVed apt pupils, the General kindly 

 gave me a show of breaking a la Kalmouk. On receiving 

 the order, ten or a dozen of these bold horsemen, who for 

 dare-devilry are like unto the sowars of the Bengal Cavalry, 

 brought forward by a leading rope a horse that they had 

 recently caught and haltered, and at a given signal rushed at 

 him, seized him by the headstall, ears, forelock, mane and 

 neck, so as to hold his head down and thus prevent him from 

 "playing up," while they saddled and bridled him by force. 

 As soon as the gear was on, one of them was hoisted into 

 the saddle, and then all let go, with the result that the horse 

 bucked with such fury and skill that the man, though he was 

 a good rough-rider, got thrown, and the horse galloped as 

 hard as he could across the plain. Some of the men who 



