CH. V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 479 



tomed to drink the milk of these animals before they had 

 mastered the horse. 



The Lasso. The capture of the wild horse was of course 

 the first step towards its domestication. This must have been 

 accomplished either by the capture of foals or of animals not 

 yet full-grown. This could hardly have been effected without 

 employing a rope or cord of some kind, and as in modern times 

 when man desires to domesticate either zebras or feral horses, 

 he always resorts to the lasso, and as I have offered abundant 

 proof of the use of the lasso amongst various peoples of the 

 ancient world (pp. 49, 117, 130, 192), it seems certain that 

 when man first essayed to tame the steed he used a rope with 

 a running noose to ensnare his victim. 



The Whip. From the inherent tendency in mankind, 

 especially in the lower stages of civilization, to beat unmerci- 

 fully domestic animals, we may without hesitation assume that 

 the lassoed horse was well belaboured with stick and cudgel to 

 cow and subdue him, and as all forms of the whip have grown 

 out of the primitive stick or switch, we are justified in giving 

 the whip precedency over the halter. This is rendered all the 

 more probable by the fact that the Libyans frequently guided 

 their docile horses solely by a switch (p. 240) and that the 

 medieval Irish often controlled the descendants of the Libyan 

 horse by a rod with a crook at one end (p. 389). 



The Bridle. In each region where the horse was domes- 

 ticated, it seems certain that the first device which can be 

 properly termed a piece of harness was the halter or headstall. 

 For it is most unlikely that man after capturing the horse with 

 the lasso, would have ventured either to mount on the back of 

 his new possession or to yoke him to any kind of wheeled car 

 without some means of controlling him. 



Thus though the Libyan horses were so docile that the rider 

 could guide them with a switch, yet their masters regularly 

 used halters (p. 240), as did also the medieval Irish. Indeed the 

 straw halters still to be met in some remote parts of Ireland 

 remind us of the rush halters of the Libyans and may be 

 regarded as the most primitive representative still surviving of 

 the earliest step in horse trappings. 



