34 THEORY OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



insensibility. Thus, the too frequently excited muscle 

 ceases to contract ; and the overwrought brain, to think. 

 The miller remains unconscious of the din of the machinery 

 around him ; and the horse, of the admonitions of the rider 

 or driver who keeps constantly speaking to him. Continued 

 pressure of the bit on the bars of the horse's mouth is far 

 less effective in restraining the animal, than pressure which 

 is judiciously intermitted. The stimulus of whip, spurs, 

 or mouthpiece, if repeated in a monotonous manner, is at 

 last more or less disregarded. 



ACCUSTOMING A HORSE TO HIS SURROUNDINGS. 



To render the horse capable of instruction, it is not suffi- 

 cient to arrest his attention ; but we must also gain his con- 

 fidence by proving to him that he need not fear injury 

 from anything we do to him, or from the surroundings in 

 which we place him. To render him steady under future 

 provocation, it is well to make him bear with equanimity 

 all possible kinds of terrifying sights and sounds and to 

 oblige him to endure being touched all over without flinch- 

 ing. The higher we try him in these respects it being of 

 course understood that the causes of alarm do not entail 

 pain the quieter will he be if anything startling happens to 

 him during actual work. The mere accustoming a horse to 

 unfamiliar sights, sounds and feelings, is not a reliable 

 method for making him steady ; because, if permitted to do 

 so, he will often, particularly when he is fresh, assume a 

 frightened demeanour which may be pure affectation on his 

 part, but which may be fraught with danger to his rider or 

 driver. On the contrary, he should be taught to devote his 

 entire attention to carrying out the orders of his master, and 

 not to attempt to take the initiative, unless he receives the 

 signal that he can act for himself for the time being. 



