HIGH BREEDING HAS ITS INFLUENCE. 307 



our bidding, helps to induce him to do so again ; but 

 a carrot, or a lump of sugar when he has contracted 

 a taste for it, insures his doing it. 



The majority of these stage and trick horses are of 

 foreign extraction, but bred in this country ; that is, 

 those exhibited here. From this, people may be led 

 into the supposition that they are more readily taught 

 than those of our own breed ; but this is not at all 

 the case ; they are only selected for the sake of colour, 

 and because their action is calculated for stage effect. 

 It has not been found that intellect or aptitude to 

 learn preponderates more in favour of foreign horses 

 than our own : if any, the advantage is in favour of 

 ours, as being higher bred ; for, taking horses collec- 

 tively, the nearer the horse approaches to thorough- 

 bred the more readily he is to be taught. This 

 plainly shows that intimidation is not the chief agent 

 employed in teaching horses, for high courage is 

 generally concomitant with high breeding; and no 

 horse will so determinately resist improper liberties 

 taken with him as the thorough-bred one ; and one of 

 the first principles with teachers is to avoid as much 

 as possible any resistance on the part of the animal 

 under tuition. 



Whether the thorough-bred horse is naturally 

 endowed with more instinct than the coarser bred 

 one, I am not prepared to say; but, judging from 

 -vhat I have seen and heard, I should, so far as my 

 opinion goes, say he decidedly is ; but, supposing he 

 is not, there is a buoyancy of spirit and alertness 

 about him that induce him to exercise his intellect, 

 and notice circumstances and things much more than 

 horses of more dull and sluggish dispositions. 



I have heard more than one surgeon say, that, in 



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