NERVOUSNESS. 25 



be easily made, if we observe how a horse acts after we 

 have proved to him that he need have no fear of us. 

 For instance, if we fix up a horse, say, in a " strait-jacket " 

 (see page 129), so that he cannot kick, and continue to 

 " gentle " him over with one hand until he has ample 

 reason to believe that we have no intention of hurting 

 him ; we might justly term him vicious if he kicked out 

 at us, without our again touching him, the moment the 

 restraint was removed. Fear of the near approach of 

 man will often induce a purely nervous animal to kick 

 out, if a person, and especially a stranger, ventures to 

 come within reach. Although horses frequently kick from 

 nervousness, they rarely bite from that cause alone. I 

 think I might venture to define the more or less vicious 

 form of nervousness as the exhibition by the horse of 

 unfounded fear of surroundings which, however startling 

 their effect on him might be in the first instance, he has 

 proved by ample experience will not hurt him. 



The more experience I acquire in the breaking of horses, 

 the more convinced I become that the so-called " nervous- 

 ness " of animals which have been handled some time, and 

 which have always been treated with kindness, is largely 

 made up of impatience of control, and, in many cases, of 

 active hostility. I make bold to assert that many crafty 

 dangerous brutes pose before their owners as ill-used 

 victims of a too highly-strung nervous system. Take, for 

 instance, an old saddle-horse, like many I have met, that 

 snorts with apparent terror at anyone who approaches 

 him, and is ready, on the slightest chance of reaching 

 his mark, to strike out in front, or lash out behind, if 

 saddling or mounting him be attempted. His nervous 

 emotion the first time he was taken in hand, or the first 

 time he performed his unpleasant tricks, may have been 

 thoroughly genuine ; but its exhibition enabled him more 



