HOW TO TRAIN A HORSE. 209 



by his mute language ; in the case of the horse, for instance, they should 

 know at a glance what is meant by the play of the ears, the arch of the 

 neck, the expression of the eyes, and the attitude generally. These 

 things once understood, more than half the difficulty of training is over- 

 come. 



II. The American Way Better than the English. 



It has often been remarked that English horses are wilder, more dan* 

 gerous and difficult to subdue, have stronger resisting powers, and are 

 more liable at any time to exhibit freaks of temper, than American-bred 

 horses. This is quite true, and for the reason that, in England, the old 

 system of horse-breaking is more in vogue than in this country. In 

 England, colts are not raised on every farm, as in the United States and 

 Canada, to be the friends and the pets of the children. Their keepers are 

 generally ignorant servants, who seem to think that horses have but two 

 impulses — to eat and to iiijure. In America, colts are the pets of the 

 boys of the family, and, while running with the mare, they become 

 habituated to all the sights and noises of the farm. They never come to 

 know their real strength as a resisting power against man ; that power 

 lies dormant, because on the farm, as a rule, they have no occasion to 

 exercise it We have accordingly insisted, as the result of experience, 

 that the education of animals should begin at a very early age, when the 

 power of resistance is small. For, if once an animal finds that the supe- 

 rior intelligence of the master is more than a match for brute force, kind- 

 ness and careful lessons will thenceforth easily complete the education of 

 all farm animals, and especially that of the young horse. 



III, Difference Between Breaking and Training. 



The difference between "breaking" and training must already be appar. 

 ent to the reader. The aim of the first is to subdue, and force is 

 promptly resorted to as the ■eadiest means to this end. The compara- 

 tively-weak but intelligently directed brute-force of the master will, of 

 course, generally v/in, and the animal, broken in spirit, becomes an autom- 

 aton, performing through fear what he cannot avoid by resistance. In 

 those cases where the superior force of the animal wins, he is thencefor- 

 ward vicious and tricky, and passes from one master to another, until, 

 worn out in the struggle, he either ruins himself or becomes the drudge 

 of some reckless and brutal teamster. 



Training, on the other hand, consists in teaching the young animal to 

 know that, while the master must be obeyed promptly and implicitly, he 

 is truly an indulgent master, requiring nothing but what is necessary to 

 be done, and, once the task is performed, that the rewards of care and 

 rest will follow. 



