344 Among Men and Horses. 



for not giving a worse show than he did. The weak point 

 about ladies is that they are so practical that when a man 

 says a thing, they believe him. To me the strange thing 

 about this trial was that I, who was as ignorant as the child 

 unborn about what my wife had written, should, by the law 

 of tort (cursed be the inventor of it), also be made liable. 

 The principle seems wrong ; although, personally, I regard 

 the obligation thus imposed as an honour. 



In order to get the money to pay the ' damages/ we took 

 Gustave to Berlin with the intention of making it by horse- 

 breaking ; but the time of our arrival (beginning of July) was 

 out of the season, and I could find no one who took any 

 interest in the art of giving horses good manners and snaffle- 

 bridle mouths. To test whether there was any chance of 

 being able to get up a class, I gave a free performance to 

 some of the officers of the 2d Uhlan Regiment at their 

 barracks. I took in hand a horse of theirs which had up to 

 that time always refused to jump, and after about a quarter 

 of an hour's work with the long reins, I made him obey so 

 effectually that when ridden by one of the gentlemen present, 

 he jumped kindly several obstacles which were in the open 

 school. They warmly commended this way of driving a 

 horse on foot, and said that it was infinitely better than their 

 own manner of lunging a horse ; but they had no desire to 

 learn. I then showed them how I had trained Gustave to 

 walk, trot, canter, gallop, turn and halt by signal, while I sat 

 on his back with my hands in my pockets. This perform- 

 ance on the part of the grey gelding delighted them beyond 

 measure, and they all said : l Er geht wie ein mensch ' (He goes 

 like a man), which is the highest compliment a German can 

 pay to a horse's style of movement. I may mention that I 

 sold Gustave to Graf Magnis of this regiment for a great deal 

 more than I had paid for him. I am glad that the Count, 

 who is a fine rider and greatly admires English horse methods, 

 got Gustave ; for he can both ride and appreciate a clever 

 jumper. The transformation from an over-worked and under- 



