Chapter VII 



TRAINING A HORSE TO PERFORM 



MUCH has been written of late upon the Performing 

 Animals Act. Personally, I do not see why a horse 

 should not be trained to perform clever tricks any more 

 than being cruelly overworked in a heavily-laden van. 



In this chapter I am going to tell my readers exactly 

 how horses are taught tricks. Most people think that 

 circus and performing horses are exceptionally clever. 

 This is not the case ; any horse can be taught tricks. 

 The most suitable horse for educating is a highly-bred 

 horse about six or seven years old. 



The system of using a pin when teaching a horse to 

 say " yes " or " no " may be considered cruel by narrow- 

 minded people. These I should like to introduce to the 

 owner of the hunter, the point-to-point, or the cross- 

 country horse, for, after the race, the wounds inflicted 

 by the severe use of the spurs are far worse, and in my 

 opinion cruel, compared with the simple pin-touch used 

 when teaching tricks. I have seen hunters after finishing 



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