178 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



horse is very susceptible to kindness ; and I have known 

 more than one quite vicious horse gentled into good 

 behavior by a few pats from a lady's gloved hand on 

 the moist neck and veined muzzle. Sometimes it is 

 well to loosen a strap or start a buckle. I have known 

 the mere act of unchecking and rechecking the animal 

 answer the purpose. It took his attention off in another 

 direction, you see, changed the current of his thought, 

 and broke up his purpose and determination to resist. 

 For this same reason, an apple, or a bunch of grass 

 from the roadside, or a handful of oats, or a few ker- 

 nels of corn, will often accomplish what an hour of 

 beating could never effect. The truth is, a man must 

 govern himself before he can hope to govern lower 

 animals. A man flushed with passion, his brain charged 

 with heated blood, and eyes blazing with rage, is not 

 in a condition to think clearly ; and it is just this think- 

 ing dearly that is, above all else, needed in directing and 

 controlling horses. Hence it is, that contact with horses, 

 and an actual experience in teaching them, is one of 

 the finest disciplines a man can have. He grows to 

 love the colt he is teaching ; and no nature is utterly 

 depraved in which is going on the exercise of affection, 

 no matter how humble the object of it may be. His 

 employment makes it necessary for him to think ; and 

 this keeps intellect, which might otherwise have no 

 development, alive. The language of the stable is not, 

 as many pious and ignorant people imagine, all slang. 

 Care and anxiety are felt in the groom's room, and con- 



