24 ILLUSTRATED HORSE-BREAKING. 



suppose we had a high-cou raged, generous animal, 

 that had been made difficult to mount by a bad. 

 rider, on various occasions, prodding the horse in 

 the side with his toe, when attempting to get into 

 the saddle, we might get control over the animal 

 by Pratt's twitch (see page 113), or by tying him 

 head and tail, and then prove to him that we 

 would not touch him with our toe, when mount- 

 ing. The Rareyfying of such an animal for this 

 or any similar fault, would be injudicious in the 

 extreme ; as it would, almost to a certainty, in- 

 juriously affect one of his most valuable qualities, 

 namely, his pluck. As a sulky animal has little 

 or no pluck to lose ; we may well content ourselves 

 in gaining his obedience without troubling ourselves 

 much about any possible deterioration of his 

 courage. 



Punishment. The chief practical reasons against 

 the employment of punishment in the breaking of 

 horses are : that it is very liable to fail in its object ; 



