USE SINGLE WORDS. 191 



see, the horse holds up his head and runs, and soon will neither guide 

 nor slacken pace for anything you can say to him. The supposed 

 object of adding whay or back to every guiding order is, to get 

 the horse to turn steadily without rushing forward, but the actual 

 effect is just the reverse of this, as the horse is almost necessarily 

 stupified and rushes about in fear, 



426. — For obvious reasons all sentences or any combination 

 of words should be avoided. Anything we are likely to require 

 from the horse should be represented to him by some short, simple 

 word, quite distinct from any other word we use to him. With 

 the ordinary draft horse, we only want about eight words to be 

 well understood and obeyed, to make him a very handy horse, 

 and there can be no difficulty in getting them all simple, distinct 

 sounds, that will not over tax his very limited power of under- 

 standing language. 



427. — No word must have two meanings with the horse, nor 

 be pronounced in two diff'erent ways, nor even uttered in a 

 different key. Even his name must not be used both as a word 

 of endearment or petting, and as a word of stirring up or reproof. 

 The latter is its proper use with the cart horse, and if you also 

 want a pet word to address him in his resting hours you should 

 choose some softer word for that purpose. 



428. — Any guiding words should be soft in themselves and 

 be softly uttered, so as to have no tendency to increase the horse's 

 pace when addressed to him. In the South, West, and Midland 

 counties of England, the words "Comather" and " Wooaged" 

 are used for their their leaders, and " Yea" and " Hoot" for 

 their shaft horses, and no horses are better driven than those. 

 But the Scotch guiding words " Haw" and " Gee," like the 

 Scotch men and horses, have spread farther over the world, and 

 are very suitable, being short, soft, simple, and distinct, so that 

 there is no objection to their adoption. With their single horse 

 carts, and single furrow ploughs, the Scotch had no need of a 

 duplicate set of guiding words ; but in turning long teams there 

 is an immense advantage in teaching your leaders to guide for 

 one set of words, and your hind horses for another. In any 

 case, *' haw" and " gee" may be used for left and right for your 



