294 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



and make up your mind to three things : first, to bring all 

 the patience of which you are possessed to bear upon your 

 task, to enable you to govern by gentleness and forbearance, 

 and not by tyranny and wrath ; second, that a colt must 

 be so handled and trained that he shall never find out his 

 own strength or power ; and third, that you must give the 

 pupil every opportunity of seeing, smelling, feeling, and 

 hearing things that will at first be strange to him, remem- 

 bering that it is by the exercise of these senses that horses 

 form their judgment of surrounding objects. 



I greatly object to the system of lungeing young horses 

 in a circle, or ring. The evils of it are suflficiently mani- 

 fested in mill-horses ; but even these are suffered to ivalk 

 their rounds, whereas the breaker compels the youngster 

 to trot, and even to canter when going in a comparatively 

 narrow circle. Injury to the sight is the very commonest 

 result of the practice, and even if it does not show imme- 

 diately, or at the time, it certainly will later on. To travel 

 round and round at a quick rate in an ordinary ring, forces 

 blood to a young animal's brain, and the faster and more 

 excited the pace the more certain will be the result. The 

 optic nerves may be said to originate from the sensorium — 

 being, in fact, a continuation of the brain proper — and 

 whenever the nervous centre is congested, the sight is the 

 first sense that becomes impaired. There are other evils 

 also connected with the system into which I need not go ; 

 suffice it to say that I regard it as a highly objectionable 



one. 



The tuition of a colt may be begun when he is three 



