THE HORSE'S EDUCATION 



discussion of this kind, and made to know that he 

 must obey, or physical pain to himself may follow. 

 Arguments are naturally useless, and no such 

 thing as mutual alliance or concession is possible ; 

 nor must he for an instant imagine that he is the 

 superior ; you must be the boss and there must 

 be no possible misunderstanding about it. If you 

 have to punish, the sharp and sudden is the most 

 genuinely kind method ; but the subject must be 

 allowed every opportunity to understand clearly 

 the reason for the discipline, and the punishment 

 itself must promptly follow the fault. It is true 

 that if you punish only for reasons that satisfy 

 yourself, it is strange how seldom you will inflict 

 such discipline at all ; but even so the time always 

 comes when the recalcitrant must learn who is his 

 master. Punishment by no means always means 

 whipping or spurring, there are other methods, and 

 the " punishment must fit the crime," as " The 

 Mikado " says. 



Ninety times in the hundred we punish at 

 the wrong time, and in the heat of passion. 

 Remember that if a horse is beaten for shying, 

 his narrow intelligence will always associate the 

 two events, and he will so confuse cause and effect 

 as to imagine that an encounter with a piece of 



