SPURS. 8^ 



yourself to get into a passion, or to drift into cruelty. 

 Fight it out all along the line, but fight calmly and with 

 judgment. First of all, before proceeding to extremities, 

 speak to him in a stern voice — he will understand it — 

 " Who-ho, then ! What are you at, eh ? Steady ! " and 

 so forth. If he persists, then the time for the legitimate 

 use of the spurs has arrived; sit firm, bring down your 

 whip, or, better still, ash-plant, on his ears and over the 

 shoulder, on the side he declines to turn to, and let him 

 feel the rowels in earnest; strike with both heels simul- 

 taneously immediately behind the girths — it is not given to 

 every man to be able to drive in both spurs together — and, 

 if necessary, repeat the dose. You must not be beaten, for 

 horses that have once found out that they can please them- 

 selves as to which road they shall take are never pleasant 

 hacks. 



Another occasion when the spur may be advantageously 

 used, is when a horse, not pumped out, that can jump, 

 baulks at his fences and obstinately refuses. When a good 

 game animal refuses it is because he has had enough of it, 

 and dares not to trust himself. Many obstinately decline 

 to face a fence, from the fact of their having been invariably 

 spurred when ridden at the obstacle, and, as often as not, 

 from having their clumsy rider's spur stuck into their arms 

 on landing and getting away again. Can it be wondered, 

 then, that, under these circumstances, many horses, especially 

 thin-skinned, sensitive ones, detest the sight of a jump. It 

 is with the horse that can jump when he likes, and only, 

 when he likes, that the spur can best deal ; those that can 

 jump and won't jump must be made to jump. A friendly hint 

 from the rowels very often convinces a wavering horse that 

 his rider quite means him to fly the obstacle in front of him, 

 and this is the case especially when water has to be cleared. 



