68 THE HORSE AND HIS EIDER. 



each other, their physical strength, though artificially 

 raised to the maximum, remains far behind their instinc- 

 tive courage and disposition to go till they die, in almost 

 any service in which they may be employed. 



Under these circumstances, the use of the spur is to 

 enable man to maintain his supremacy, and, whenever 

 necessary, promptly and efficiently to suppress mutiny 

 in whatever form it may break out. If a restiff horse 

 objects to pass a particular post, he must be forced to do 

 so. If he refuses to jump water, he must, as we have 

 described, be conquered. But in every case of this 

 nature a combination of cool determination, plenty of 

 time, and a little punishment, invariably form a more 

 permanent cure than a prescription composed only of 

 the last ingredient; for as anger, in a horse as in a 

 man, is a short madness, an animal under its influence 

 is not in so good a state to learn and remember the 

 lesson of obedience which man is entitled to impart, 

 as when he has time given to him to observe that the 

 just sentence to which he is sternly required to submit, 

 is tempered with mercy. 



But if the uses of the spur are few, its abuses are 

 many. On the race-course, the eagerness and impe- 

 tuosity of thorough bred horses to contend against each 

 other are so great, that for a considerable time it is 

 difficult to prevent them, especially young ones, from 



