1 60 METHODS OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



end." These animals, I can assure my readers, form only a 

 small proportion of the horses whose vices make them fit 

 subjects for taming. I have met with many horses which 

 were very dangerous to approach, but which were so sulky 

 that the mere act of tying-up a fore leg was sufficient to 

 make them lie down without their attempting the semblance 

 of a " fight." Others would similarly adopt the recumbent 

 position if they obtained the additional incentive of having 

 their head drawn round to the side of the fore leg which 

 alone supported the weight of the forehand. To make any 

 such method perfect, it is necessary to provide it with 

 means, as described on page 149, for forcing the horse to 

 " fight," when, from sulkiness, he refuses to do so. His 

 refusal to fight, in such cases, is a " defence " which we have 

 got to combat. 



Mr. Norton Smith adopted, from " Professor " Gleeson I 

 believe, a modification of Rarey's system, by attaching a 

 long strap or cord to each fore pastern, passing these lines 

 through the surcingle (or through rings on the surcingle), 

 and then canying them back behind the horse, so that the 

 operator, while keeping out of harm's way, could pull up 

 one or both fore legs of the animal, as he deemed fit. When 

 I saw Mr. Smith performing, he made the horse lie down 

 by pulling both legs off the ground at the same time. Al- 

 though such a method might do for a show, and especially 

 with a horse that had been taught to "go down " in this 

 way, it is unworthy of serious consideration from a breaking 

 point of view, on account of the danger there is, by it, of the 

 animal injuring himself by coming down violently on his 

 knees or on his head. A breaker cannot be expected to be 

 provided with ground softer than an ordinary grass field. 



Sample tells me that Denton Offett taught Rarey the 

 system which now goes by Rarey's name. I see from a 

 leading article in the Evening Standard of 3Oth June, 1893, 



