TAKING HINTS. 321 



again struck, and so on. The horse soon finds out 

 what is wanted, and like the stupidest of ourselves, 

 would of course prefer the little trouble of lifting a 

 leg to avoid a hit on the shin. To this he gets so 

 awake that the mere motion of the stick or whip is 

 sufficient ; and as the man's body naturally inclines 

 or waves to the right or left as he moves the stick or 

 whip to strike, the horse gets so accustomed to this 

 that the mere swaying of the exhibitor's body is in 

 the end quite a sufficient hint to him ; and some 

 motion of this sort will be observed in the exhibitor 

 when the horse is performing in public. 



For this purpose a horse must be a high-mettled, 

 high-couraged one high-mettled, that a slight touch 

 suffices to make him lift his leg in preference to suf- 

 fering it to be hit ; and high-couraged, that a slight 

 touch, though it will make him readily move, will not 

 put him in fear. In fact a high-mettled horse, though 

 he will fly to avoid a touch of a whip, is not in actual 

 fear of it, because his high spirit never renders it 

 necessary to severely punish him with it. 



In proof of this is a fact that every coachman knows. 

 We will suppose it a sunny day ; the free horses run 

 along as usual, mind their business, and leave the sun 

 to mind his : but the shirkers and lazy ones keep their 

 eye on the shadow of the whip (if they can see it) : 

 they have felt it, know they deserve it, and watch for 

 it : only move the whip-hand, they are up to their 

 traces in a moment, and seem as if they had determined 

 to take their side of the coach single-handed ; and so 

 they do till they see the shadow of the whip still 

 again ; then " let them work that like it." 



Picking up a handkerchief from the ground is 



VOL. II. Y 



