THE OLD SYSTEM AXD THE NEW. 3 



all, it is to the horse-breeding fanners and groom* to 

 whom Mr. Rarey 's art will be of the most practical 

 use. 



As it is, enougli of the system has oozed out to sug- 

 gest to the ignorant new means of cruelty. A horse's 

 leg is strapped up, and then the unlearned proceed to 

 bully the crippled animal, instead of to borrow an ex- 

 pressive Americanism " to gentle him." 



Before entering into the details for practising the 

 Rarey system, it may be interesting to give a sketch of 

 the " facts " that have placed Mr. Rarey in his present 

 well-deserved position, as an invincible Horse-Tamer, 

 as well as a Reformer of the whole modern system of 

 training horses a position unanimously assigned to 

 him by all the first horsemen of the day. 



Mr. Rarey has been a horse-breaker in the United 

 States from his earliest youth, and had frequently to 

 break in horses five or six years old, that had run wild 

 until that mature undocile age. 



At first he employed the old English rough-rider 

 method, and hi the course of his adventures broke 

 almost every bone in his body, for his pluck was greater 

 than his science. But he was not satisfied with follow- 

 ing old routine ; he inquired from the wandering horse- 

 men and circus trainers into their methods (it may be 

 that he was at one time attached to a circus himself), 

 and read every book he could lay his hands on. By 

 inquiry and by study as he says in one of his ad- 

 vertisements " he thought out " the plan and the prin- 

 ciples of his present system. 



The methods he uses for placing a colt or horse com- 

 pletely in his power are not absolutely new, although it is 

 possible that he has re-invented and has certainly much 

 improved them. The Russian (i. e. Courland) Circus 



