THE BREAKING OF THE COLT 193 



I am in a position to form an opinion upon the whole process as compared 

 with our ordinary English methods, with which I have also long been 

 practically acquainted. 



IN HIS PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS Mr. Rarey always commenced by some 

 introductory remarks on the natural history of the horse, in which there 

 w;is nothing to impress the auditor with any great respect for his powers. 

 At the end of this act, which was evidently intended to kill time, we were 

 put in possession of the three fundamental principles of the new theory of 

 the proper management of the horse, namely : 



First, " That he is so constituted by nature that he will not offer resist- 

 ance to any demand made of him which he fully comprehends, if made in 

 a way consistent with the laws of his nature." 



Secondly, " That he has no consciousness of his strength beyond his 

 experience, and can be handled according to our will without force." 



Thirdly, " That we can, in compliance with the laws of his nature, by 

 which he examines all things new to him, take any object, however 

 frightful, around, over, or on him, that does not inflict pain, without 

 causing him to fear." 



No one will, I believe, dispute the first two of these principles, which 

 have certainly nothing very novel in them. The third, when promulgated, 

 was more opposed to our experience, and a demonstration of its truth was 

 naturally enough required before it was accepted. To comply with this 

 demand liorse after horse was submitted to an exhausting and painful 

 proof, which I shall presently describe, and then certainly anything which 

 did not inflict pain was borne without apparently producing fear. This, 

 therefore, was proving the letter of the third principle ; but was the spirit 

 of it established ? The words just quoted, if they mean anything, signify 

 that it is only necessary to allow a horse to examine the drum and he will 

 show no fear of it. But is this the real fact ? I trow not. Before a high- 

 couraged horse will allow a drum to be beaten on his back he must either 

 submit to a long course of training under the old system, or he must go 

 through the royal road of Mr. Rarey, of which nothing whatever is said 

 in the three principles alluded to. Take an ordinary hunter after he is 

 exhausted by a long run, and he will bear the noise of a drum, or any 

 other alarming agent, to which he would, when fresh and active, show the 

 greatest objection. Why, then, should we be astonished that a shorter 

 method of exhausting the nervous energy should have the same effect- 

 ever if it is shown in a still more remarkable manner, as we shall presently 

 see it is? As far, therefore, as Mr. Rarey's principles are concerned I 

 have little to say against them, except that if the third is meant to apply 

 to the exhibition of the drum beaten on the backs of his several subjects, 

 it is not very ingenuous in the language which is used. 



BEFORE MR. RAREY CAME TO ENGLAND he had, as I have already 

 remarked, published in America a little pamphlet which described his 

 several plans for driving a colt from pasture ; driving into a stable and 

 haltering, and the kind of halter used, etc. It also contained an account of 

 an experiment with a robe, showing that the horse, as soon as he discovers 

 by his senses that an object has no power or will to hurt him, goes up to 

 it, and soon becomes regardless of its presence. All these remarks, how- 

 ever, have no interest for my readers, as they are of no utility whatever, 



o 



