HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP. 35 



saddled, he will probably run away; then stop him if you can : 



or he will resist you by sulking, rearing, or throwing himself 

 down ; then make him gallop if you can, or take either leg, at 

 your will, at a collected canter. Is it from want of suppleness ? 

 or want of disposition to obey ? because he can't ? or because he 

 won't !— I think the last. Turn him away loose to his com- 

 panions in the green fields, and he will gambol with the light- 

 ness of a bird, and the elasticity of an eel ; and when you 

 want to catch him again, he will gallop fast enough, or proba- 

 bly inflating his nostrils, and spreading his tail, he will make 

 such a "passage" — I use it in the French sense, the cadenced 

 or collected trot— as, if you were on him, you would think an 

 ample reward for two years' labour. 



The great thing in horsemanship is to get your horse 

 to be of your party ; not only to obey, but to obey wil- 

 lingly. For this reason a young horse cannot be begun 

 with too early, and his lessons cannot be too gradually 

 progressive. He should wear a head-stall from the begin- 



