128 LISKI 



while gentling him with the long stick, or by making him lie 

 down, both of which methods were practised by breakers 

 'long before Rarey came to England in the early fifties, and 

 which are described at considerable length in Illustrated 



o 



Horse-breaking. This so-called horse taming is of course 

 but a mere preliminary to the more serious business of making 

 the riding animal obedient to rein and leg, and has the sole, 

 but not unimportant merit of saving time and consequently 

 expense. 



The real education of the horse begins with the long reins, 

 which I believe I use in an original manner ; my chief object 

 being to get complete control over the animal, so that he may 

 not acquire the dangerous idea that he can pull successfully 

 against the reins, or buck his rider off, and that he may learn 

 to obey the indications of the reins with his hind-quarters, as 

 well as with his mouth. I may here point out that it is no 

 good for a horse to turn his head to the right, even to the 

 rider's right knee, unless at the same time he turns his hind- 

 quarters to the left ; and vice versa. The horse can also be 

 taught by means of the long reins to jump. This dismounted 

 instruction should be supplemented by lessons in turning on 

 the fore hand and also on the hind legs, with the cane or whip. 

 The animal will then be able to understand the indications of 

 rein and leg, when he is mounted for the first time. The 

 beauty of this method of breaking is that it saves a horse 

 from getting spoiled by being prematurely mounted, and 

 teaches him more in a week, than he would otherwise learn 

 in a couple of months. 



At 9.30 a.m. on the 2ist September 1898, I opened pro- 

 ceedings at Liski in presence of General Hahn and all his 

 officers and men off duty, in a large manege which had a 

 floor of deep sand, and was given Rotmistr Heppener to act 

 as my German translator. My first pupil, a bay gelding 

 rising 5, was led in by four men, who held him by a long 



