508 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



orous course of training, which is both systematic aiid severe, 

 and embraces, in a short space of time,^^!! the essential les- 

 sons that are to be taught him — all that has been neglected 

 in a previous lifetime. As a means of taming wild and vi- 

 cious horses, it is, beyond question, the best method known ; 

 and its ease, rapidity, and almost invariable success renders 

 it a most important step forward in the science of horse- 

 breaking. No person who thoroughly understands it would 

 now think of going back to any of the older practices. 



THE EARET KNEE-STRAP. 



The first step, of course, is to halter the animal, which it 

 is by no means an easy matter to do in many cases. To 

 effect this purpose, Mr. Rarey and his pupils are said to 

 have resorted occasionally to the use of certain drugs. Their 

 method of procedure, it is stated, was in accordance with 

 the following directions: "Rub a little of the oil of cum- 

 min upon your hands, and approach the horse upon the 

 windward side, so that he will smell the cummin. The 

 horse will permit you to come up to him without any 

 trouble. Rub your hand gently over the nose, so as to get 

 a little of the oil on it, and you can lead him anywhere. 

 Put eight drops of the oil of rhodium into a silver thimble ; 

 very gently open the horse's mouth, and turn the oil in the 

 thimble upon his tongue, and he will follow 3^ou like a pet 

 dog,' and is your pupil and your friend." The use of any 

 sort of drugs or essences, in connection with horse -training, 

 is of doubtful propriety in any case, yet is, perhaps, admis- 

 sible when employed to catch a brute that is otherwise unap- 

 proachable. It may well be questioned whether such agen- 

 cies do not prove injurious to the horse ; and even if this be 

 not so, their good effects are of too transient a nature to 



