The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



In his system of breaking by vis majeure, 

 the short-tempered groom encounters problems 

 in which force is, of course, no remedy ; and 

 it is then that the httle intelligence there may 

 be in him deserts him altogether, and he 

 becomes a blind raging brute. Nothing up- 

 sets his temper so much as the obstacle he 

 doesn't understand. He has not sufficiently 

 accustomed the horse to his harness, or to pull ; 

 the collar or breast-strap galls, and, when the 

 horse is asked to pull the load behind him, it 

 hurts him, and he does not move forward. 

 Instead of getting down to see what is wrong 

 and put it right, and petting and encouraging 

 the horse to go ahead, he shouts and slashes, 

 and saws at its mouth. Under punishment, 

 some animals wiU end their resistance by 

 going ahead, but others of a sulky nature will 

 continue their refusal. Tlie more the horse 

 refuses, the more this sort of man loses his 

 temper and rains blows upon the unfortunate 

 animal. He saws at its mouth, until its Hps 

 and gums are a mass of foam and blood. 

 Sweating and trembling with fear and the 

 punishment, and rearing with the pain of its 

 mouth, in about ten minutes of this treatment, 

 the horse has been converted into a jibber for 

 life. 



If you have a valuable horse to break 

 into harness, do it yom-self. If that for any 

 reason is impossible, take the greatest care in 



175 



