WILD AND TAME HORSES COMPARED. 27 



witli all the propensities of the wild horse to reject man, 

 but, from being better fed, he has greater strength to 

 indulge in them ; besides which he enjoys the immense 

 advantage of being in a civilized, or, in plainer terms, an 

 enclosed country. Accordingly, instead of being forced 

 to run away, his rider is particularly afraid lest he should 

 do so, simply because he knows that the remedy which 

 would cure the wild horse, would probably kill him. In 

 fact, the difference to the rider between an open and an 

 enclosed field of battle is exactly that which a naval officer 

 feels in scudding in a gale of wind out of sight of land, 

 and in being caught among sandbanks and rocks in a narrow 

 channel. 



3. Of all descriptions of horses, wild and tame, by far 

 the most difficult to ride is that young British thorough- 

 bred colt of two or three years old that has been regularly 

 "broken in" hy himself, without giving the slightest 

 warning, to jump away sideways, spin round, and at the 

 same moment kick off his rider. The feat is a beautiful 

 and well-arranged combination of nature and of art. 

 Like the pugilistic champion of England — Tom Sayers — 

 he is a professional performer, gifted with so much 

 strength and activity, and skilful in so many quick, artful 

 tricks and dodges, that any country practitioner who 

 comes to deal with him is no sooner up than down, to 

 rise from his mother earth with a vague, bewildered. 



