SECTION YIL-HORSE TRAINING 



THE GENERAL TRAINING AND PREPARING OF HORSES 



Until a person has by practical experience become acquainted with the 

 evil results of bad breaking, it is impossible for him to estimate the im- 

 portance which attaches to the proper handling and preparing of horses for 

 whatever their future mission in life may be. Of course, as different varie- 

 ties of horses have to be put to different work, and as tempers and con- 

 stitutions vary very considerably, each class of animal has to be treated 

 separately in matters of detail, though up to a certain point there is a 

 similarity in the methods applied to the breaking and preparation of all 

 horses. 



Individuality. — Thus, for instance, the man who is entrusted with 

 the responsibility of preparing a horse for whatever purpose will, if he is 

 wise, endeavour in the first instance to master all the details of the 

 temper, constitution, and peculiarities of the animal. He will satisfy 

 himself of the condition of the teeth, digestion, wind, eyes, limbs, and 

 general state of his pupil, and will use his best endeavours to strengthen 

 any weaknesses which may exist in these before the prejDaration commences, 

 or, if possible, so to shape his system that it will adapt itself to the peculiar 

 infirmity of that particular hoi'se. Any inattention to such preliminary 

 considerations as the above will be certain to be associated with failure 

 and disappointment, as it cannot be too strongly impressed upon all those 

 who have transactions with horses that no two animals are identical in all 

 respects, and therefore that a course of treatment which will prove bene- 

 ficial to one may prove worse than useless if applied to another. 



Whip and Bit. — The great mistakes which many persons make in 

 breaking, schooling, or preparing horses are the over-application of the 

 whip and the adoption of a loud bullying tone towards the animal wlicu 

 he makes a mistake, or does not immediately respond to the requirements 

 of the breaker. Even the Duke of Newcastle, in his sumptuously illus- 

 trated folio work on equitation which was published so far back as the 



VOL. m 301 85 



