CHAPTER 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. Rarey'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 



