108 THE CARDINAL RULE. 



that hui'D liiin much. It is not because he has ever been hurt by 

 the !)it, but because he has been taught that he cannot resist it, ^ 

 that he yields to it with the gentlest touch ; and the ease with 

 which we have taught him that, should make us expect that the 

 same animal will only be too ready to believe that the collar is at 

 least e'jually irresistable. 



375. — It is only necessary to think thus reasonably of what 

 the horse's nature really is, to see the course that we must adopt 

 with him to get him to treat the restraint of the collar in exactly 

 the opposite way to that in which we wish him to treat the 

 restraint of his neck tie, his halter, or liis bit. Wc have made him 

 believe that he must yield to the bit, by tying that l)it to an un- 

 yielding post, we must now make him believe that the collar will 

 always yield to him, by tying it at first to something that will 

 always give way to the very gentlest push against it. For 



THE SAME REASON THAT THE YOUNG HORSE MUST NEVER PULL 

 SUCCESSFULLY ON A BIT OR A HALTER, HE MUST NEVER PULL 



UNSUCCESSFULLY ON A COLLAR. This will be found the simple 

 and all-sufficient key that, properly used, will make any horse a 

 steady puller. 



;j7(J. — Many very gentle liorses will stop for a slighter pull 

 on the traces than would stop other horses on the reins. The 

 weight of a finger may be too much for their first pull : but by 

 degrees the resistance may be increased until we have so entirely 

 altered their nature as to get them to pull (juietly and repeatedly, 

 without fear or impatience, at a collar which they cannot move at 

 all. A^ery few horses are ever brought to this state of perfection 

 as pullers, because very few are ever treated with the long 

 persevering patience necessary to produce it. Once whip or hurt 

 a horse ;it what he cannot or does not know how to pull, and you 

 have ruined him as a puller for life. He will ever afterwards 

 be more or less impatient and restive whenever he finds himself in 

 a similar fix. Very few things are more contrary to his nature 

 than to try again and again at what he cannot move, consequently 

 very few things are more difficult to teach him or more easy to 

 unteach him. We can in a single day teach him to stojj or to 

 turn for a bit in hands that liave no power over him if that 



