88 THE AMERICAN HORSE 



quires and receives little or no breakinrr, unless he show quali- 

 ties wliieli promise such speed or endurance as to render it 

 advisable to train him as a trotter. Even when this is done, 

 it is for the purpose of developing his povv'ers, getting him to 

 exert himself to the utmost, and teaching him how to move to 

 the best advantage ; and not to render him submissive, easy of 

 management, or gentle to be handled. There is scarcely ever 

 any difficulty in saddling, in harnessing, in backing, or in in- 

 ducing him to go. He may be awkward at first, uncouth, shy, 

 and timid ; but he is never, one may almost say, violent, spas- 

 modic in his actions, and fierce. 



It is true that horses are treated, for the most part, with 

 superior judgment and greater humanity in the United States; 

 that the whip is little used, and the spur almost unknown; 

 still the whole of this remarkable difference in temper, on the 

 part of the American horse, cannot be attributed to the differ- 

 ence of treatment. 



As lie begins, moreover, he continues to the end. One 

 rarely encounters a kicker, a runaway, an inveterate shyer or 

 balker, and hardly ever a furious animal, not to be approached, 

 save at the risk of limb or life, in an American horse of any 

 class or condition. 



Probably this fact may, in some respects, be attributed to 

 the less high strain of blood in the American roadster, and 

 still more to the hardier and less stimulating mode of treatment 

 to which he is subjected. The heating treatment to which the 

 English horse is subjected, unquestionably deprives him, in 

 some degree, of the power of enduring long-protracted exer- 

 tion, privation, hardship, and the inclemency of the weather; 

 and the pampering, high feeding, excessive grooming, and 



