UNDERSTANDING OUR SIGNALS. 35 



MAKING A HORSE UNDERSTAND OUR ORDERS. 



We know from experience that the horse, to be well broken 

 in, must not alone be quiet ; but must also thoroughly 

 understand the meaning of the various orders we give him. 

 Although his intelligence is not developed highly enough to 

 enable us to teach him our spoken language ; we may by 

 the establishment of certain signals render him capable of 

 knowing our wishes, in the carrying out of which their clear 

 comprehension is naturally the first step. Our conventional 

 language or signals should be those which he can best 

 understand. Hence, in this endeavour we should work on his 

 most highly developed mental faculty, namely, his memory, 

 in the exercise of which, association of ideas is the most 

 effective stimulus. It is evident that we should give these 

 signals in as clear and uniform a manner as possible, and 

 that their effect should not be complicated by that of 

 other influences, such as fear, anger, excitement, or desire 

 to go to a companion. We shall see further on that almost 

 the entire education of the horse depends upon association 

 of ideas. I may give the following instance of the working 

 of this principle : A friend of mine had a horse which 

 became so increasingly difficult to mount, that at last he 

 was unable to get on him by ordinary means, on account 

 of the animal " breaking away " the moment he attempted 

 to put his foot into the stirrup. Living near a river, he 

 hit on the expedient of placing the horse with his off side 

 " broadside on," and close to, a steep part of the bank, 

 and then made a feint of mounting on the near side. As 

 usual, when the man's foot touched the iron, the horse 

 swung round, and, on this occasion only, fell down twenty 

 feet into the water. The mental effect of this lesson, 

 which was harmless from a physical point of view, was 



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