130 THE AKT OF TAMING HORSES. 



out any motion in the horseman's upright, imposing 

 attitude. But I have lived and served with them. I 

 have myself been a riding-master, and know, from 

 experience, the disadvantages of this foreign seat and 

 system." 



There is nothing that requires more patience and 

 firmness than a shying horse. Shying arises from three 

 causes defective eyesight, skittishness, and fear. If a 

 horse always shies from the same side you may be sure 

 the eye on that side is defective. 



You may know that a horse shies from skittishness if 

 he flies one day snorting from what he meets the next 

 with indifference ; dark stables also produce this irre- 

 gular shying. 



Nervousness, which is often increased by brutality, as 

 the horse is not only afraid of the object, but of the 

 whipping and spurring he has been accustomed to re- 

 ceive, can be alleviated, to some extent, by the treatment 

 already described in the horse-training chapter. But 

 horses first brought from the country to a large town 

 are likely to be alarmed at a number of objects. You 

 must take time to make them acquainted with each. 

 For instance, I brought a mare from the country that 

 everything moving seemed to frighten. I am con- 

 vinced she had been ill-used, or had had an accident 

 in harness. The first time a railway train passed 

 in her sight over a bridge spanning the road she 

 was travelling, she would turn round and would have 

 run away had I not been able to restrain her ; I could 

 feel her heart beat between my legs. Acting on the 

 principles of Xenophon and Mr. Rarey, I allowed her to 

 turn, but compelled her to stand, twenty yards off, while 

 the train passed. She looked back with a fearful eye all 

 the time it was a very slow luggage train while I 



