4 THE AET OF TAMING HORSES. 



Eiders bave long known how, single-handed, to make a 

 horse lie down by fastening up one fore-leg, and then 

 with a rope suddenly pulling the other leg from under 

 him. The trick w-as practised in England more than 

 forty years ago, and forgotten. That no importance was 

 attached to this method of throwing a horse is proved by 

 the fact that in the numerous ^vorks on horsemanship, 

 published during the last twenty years, no reference is 

 made to it. But it is described very elaborately in an 

 old almanack, published at the office of the Stamford 

 Mercury, in the possession of Lieut.-Colonel Lord 

 Burghersh, Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Cambridge. 

 When Mr. Starkey, the Wiltshire farmer, breeder and 

 iTinner of race-horses,* saw Mr. Earey operate for the 

 first time, he said, " Why I knew how to throw a horse 

 in that way years ago, but I did not know the use of it, 

 and was always in too great a hurry ! " Lord Berners, 

 who is equally well acquainted with the old and new 

 schools of horsemanship, made nearly the same remark 

 to me. 



Captain Nolan, who was killed at Balaklava, served in 

 an Hungarian regiment, in the Austrian service, after- 

 wards in our own service in India, and visited Eussia, 

 France, Denmark, and South Germany, to collect mate- 

 rials for his work on the " History of Cavalry and on 

 the Training of Horses," although he set out with the 

 golden rule laid down by the great Greek horseman, 

 Xenophon, more than a thousand years ago — *' Horses 



AP.E TAUGHT, NOT BY HaRSHNESS, BUT BY GENTLENESS," 



only refers incidentally to a j^lan for throwing a horse 

 down, in an extract from Baucher's great w^ork, which 

 will presently be quoted, but attaches no importance to 



* Owner of Fishennan. 



