HEAD AND TAIL METHOD. 159 



by the long reins. If the horse. is quiet enough to carry 

 a man on his back, riding him round and turning him in 

 small circles will certainly improve his manners more than 

 letting him, with his head tied to his tail go round and 

 round until he sees fit to stand still ; to say nothing of the 

 instruction he gets at the same time in control by hand 

 and leg. I have known several instances of aggressively 

 vicious horses, which had apparently " given in " during 

 a head and tail lesson, become in a few hours far worse 

 in their temper, seemingly from resentment at having 

 been rendered temporarily helpless, and from knowledge 

 that, with their freedom, they had regained their power of 

 inflicting injury on those whom they, rightly or wrongly, 

 regarded as their tormentors. 



RAREYFYING A HORSE. 



The method by which Rarey used to tame vicious horses 

 was to tie up one fore leg (as in Fig. 35), and then pull up the 

 other by means of a strap attached to the pastern and pas- 

 sing through the surcingle, which had previously been put on. 

 The operator stands on the side of the tied-up leg, and 

 draws the horse's head by the rein to the opposite side 

 as soon as the horse comes down on his knees. Having 

 got into that position, the animal is supposed to struggle to 

 get up, until at last, confessing the superior power of the 

 man, he " gives in " and rolls over on his side. He is 

 then " gentled " (see page 148), and, finally, on the straps 

 being removed, he is allowed to get up and to commence 

 life as a supposed reformed character. As the operator 

 has to stand close to the animal while it plunges and fights 

 for its liberty, this process of taming has been adopted 

 by very few. Its non-success as a breaking method was 

 further increased by the fact that it was efficacious only 

 with those vicious horses which would " fight to the bitter 



