HEAD AOT) TAIL METHOD. 157 



accustomed to the movement ; but on no account to such an 

 extent as would cause him to be in danger of falling down ; 

 for our object here is to avoid giving him just reason for 

 alarm. Besides, a fall, when the animal is in this position, 

 is not without danger to neck or back. 



When the horse has been fixed up in this manner, we 

 may begin operations by gently cracking a whip while 

 standing a few yards away from him, and may continue to 

 do so, if he expresses impatience or alarm by going round 

 and round, until he pays no attention to the noise made by 

 the whip, although we may crack it all over him. We 

 should gradually shorten the cord which connects his 

 head to his tail, and, at the same time, should continue 

 to approach nearer to him, and to increase the noise of the 

 cracking of the whip. Out of hundreds of " nervous " 

 horses which have passed through my hands, I have never 

 seen a single one which, by this head and tail plan, would 

 not, within an hour at the outside, allow the whip to be 

 cracked all over him without evincing the slightest fear, 

 even when the connecting cord had been removed from the 

 headstall and tail. While using the whip in the manner 

 described, we should carefully refrain from hitting the 

 animal with it. After the pupil has lost all fear of the whip, 

 we may proceed in a similar manner to make him bear 

 without flinching being touched with a long pole of con- 

 venient thickness and weight. We should begin by placing 

 the pole on the least sensitive part of his body (his " crest," 

 on which the mane grows), and should work up by degrees 

 to the more ticklish ones, such as under the belly, down the 

 legs, in front, behind, and between them. In this way, we 

 should go over the whole of the animal's body with the pole. 

 When he submits to be touched all over, we may try the 

 effect of noise on him, as, for instance, that produced by 

 beating an empty paraffin oil tin, and we may finally 



