ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 67 



" shake hands, sir," and immediately after commanding 

 him to do so, pull upon the strap, which will bring his foot 

 forward, and which you are to accept as shaking hands, 

 thanking him for it by caressing and feeding. And so 

 repeat, until when you make the demand he will bring the 

 foot forward, in anticipation of having it pulled up. This 

 is a very easy trick to teach a horse. By a little practice a 

 horse may be easily trained to approach, make a bow, shake 

 hands, follow like a dog, lie down, sit up, and the like — 

 which feats make him appear both polite and intelligent. 



Never lose courage, nor confidence in your ability, because 

 you may not bring about good results easily. To accom- 

 plish anything of importance, remember, requires no ordi- 

 nary resolution and perseverance. There would be no 

 credit nor importance attached to mastering and managing 

 bad horses, if it were not difficult, and apparently danger- 

 ous. No duty requires more firmness of purpose in the 

 control of the passions, nor more fidelity to the principles 

 of firmness and truth, than that of horsemanship. 



If you would really be a successful horseman, you must 

 never seem, by your conduct, to forget that you are a man, 

 and that your real superiority over the animal consists in 

 the prudent exercise of your reasoning powers. Brute force 

 is not your forte, and the instant you give way to passion 

 your reason mast yield to the control of blind instinct, 

 and you at once abdicate your intellectual superiority over 

 the animals. Try to prove, by the example of your actioa 

 in the performance of the duty, that to be a good horseman 

 requires higher qualifications of fitness than that of the 

 huckstering dishonesty and depravity, so generally evinced 

 in the conduct of those claiminji the distinction. 



