HANDLING YOUR HORSE 53 



on. Like everything else, the art of taming horses 

 is governed by common sense, and if you reason 

 the matter out you will see for yourself what is the 

 best thing to do. 



First of all you have to overcome the animal's 

 natural fear of man and then to give it conlidence. 

 Afterwards you must make it understand that you 

 are the master and that, however headstrong at 

 first, it must eventually bend to your will. Abso- 

 lute quietness is of course essential in the handling 

 of young horses, and a good motto for those who 

 have any animals under their control is, ^' Be gentle, 

 but be firm." 



We are all rather prone to take it for granted that, 

 because animals are denied the power of speech, 

 it is useless to employ the human language in con- 

 veying any impression to them, but this is a great 

 mistake, and one that we see committed in the 

 kennel as well as in the stable. You have only 

 to watch horses doing shunting work on railways, 

 or even the slaves in the plough, to see that words 

 can easily be made to convey their proper mean- 

 ings. The hearing of a horse is more sensitive 

 than that of a man, and there is therefore no 

 reason why horses should not distinguish sounds. 

 They cannot be expected to learn the meaning of 

 every word in the English language or to under- 

 stand a long sentence, but they have quite sufficient 

 intelligence to know what is required of them when 

 certain words are used. 



The average horseman seems to think the only 



