344 CIRCUS TRICKS. 



this way the horse will soon learn to recognise the 

 fact that he gets a reward for taking hold of the hand- 

 kerchief, and can then be readily taught to pick it up or to 

 take it off one of his legs, to which it has been loosely tied. 

 Horses that are naturally ticklish and inclined to snap are 

 the quickest to learn this trick in this manner. Instead of 

 getting the horse to catch hold by irritating him, the same 

 object may be attained by tying up in the handkerchief a 

 piece of carrot or other bonne bouche, and inducing the 

 animal to lift up the handkerchief in his endeavour to get 

 at the contained delicacy. 



When a horse has learned to catch hold of a handker- 

 chief, he may be taught to fire off a gun, placed on a stand 

 or on his back, by attaching a handkerchief to its trigger, 

 and by indicating with the whip or hand the object to 

 be seized and pulled. 



JUMPING OVER ANOTHER HORSE, ETC. 



Let us suppose that we want to make one horse stand 

 perfectly still and unheld, while another jumps over him. 

 We might then adopt the following procedure. Take 

 an enclosed ring, like that of a circus, and close to its side, 

 and on one of its diameters, construct a trench about 3 

 feet deep and 2 feet 6 inches wide, with a ramp leading 

 down to it. Within this trench place a clothes-horse or 

 other convenient stand, with rugs over it, and teach the 

 jumper to go round the circle by means of the whip, and 

 jump this obstacle. We may then substitute for the 

 dummy the real horse, which we can teach, by means of 

 the rope-twitch (see page 118), to stand perfectly still. 

 All that now remains is to gradually fill up the trench while 

 continuing the lessons. We may dispense with or retain 

 the side reins. 



