4 ILL USTRA TED \HORSE-BREA KING. 



might justly term him a vicious brute if he 

 kicked at us, without our touching him, the 

 moment the restraint was removed. I may 

 mention, in this connection, that fear of the near 

 approach of man will often induce a purely 

 nervous animal to kick -out, if a person, and 

 especially a stranger, ventures to come within 

 reach. Although we may frequently find a horse 

 kick from nervousness, he will rarely bite from 

 that cause alone. As a verbal distinction be- 

 tween faults due to deliberate vice, and those 

 caused by fear of man, or of the animal's strange 

 surroundings, would not, generally, be understood - 

 at first glance, I need not attempt to make it in 

 these pages. 



The more experience I acquire in the breaking 

 of horses, the more convinced I become, that the 

 so-called " nervousness " of animals that have 

 been handled some time, is largely made up of 

 impatience of control, and, in many cases, of 

 active hostility. Without, for a moment, imputing 



