RAPID METHODS OF BREAKING. 49 



on an emergency be made fit for the riding-school in a 

 couple of days. I need not dwell on the value of such 

 expedition in military exigencies, and in all cases where 

 time is an object. " Spoiled " horses which have learned 

 to know their own power, would naturally take longer 

 to break than entirely unhandled animals ; although a 

 limit of a week need not usually be exceeded even with 

 them. The possibility of reclaimed horses going back to 

 their old tricks should be provided against by a judicious 

 repetition of the necessary discipline, which would rarely 

 be needed after the first three or four days, if the animal 

 be mouthed and suppled in the manner I shall hereafter 

 describe. Without using any forcible methods, which, as a 

 rule, would not be required with a valuable horse, the 

 breaker ought not to need more than a week to make any 

 ordinary horse fit for all the usual requirements of saddle 

 or harness, as far as quietness and obedience go. His 

 higher education, especially in the formation of his paces, 

 and, if a cross-country horse, in teaching him to collect 

 and extend himself properly when jumping, would probably 

 occupy the breaker's time for another month or two. 



" Spoiled " horses are not, as a rule, satisfactory subjects 

 for a breaker to tackle ; because although the instructor 

 may succeed in reducing the large majority of them to 

 submission, they will often revert to their old tricks when 

 they leave his hands and find they can do so with impu- 

 nity. The owners of " spoiled " and vicious horses are 

 generally bad tempered, irritable men, who would be 

 incapable of displaying the patience of a good breaker, 

 however hard he might try to instruct them in his 

 methods. My wife once saw a man dismount from his 

 horse, tie up a fore-leg, and beat him most brutally. 

 When she asked him what he was doing, he replied 

 that he was " Hayesifying " the animal, and her indigna- 



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