6 THE ART OF TAMING HORSES. 



of Astley's, began to exhibit a way of making a horse lie 

 down, which bore as much resemblance to Mr. Earey's 

 system, as Buckstone's or Keeley's travestie of Othello 

 would to a serious performance by a first-rate tragedian. 

 Mr. Cooke pulling at a strap over the horse s back, was, 

 until he grew, by practice, skilful, more than once 

 thrown down by the extension of the off fore-leg. 



Indeed, the proof that the circus people knew neither 

 the Rarey plan, nor the results to be obtained from it, 

 is to be found in the fact, that they continually failed in 

 subduing unruly horses sent to them for that purpose. 



A friend of mine, an eminent engineer, sent to Astley's, 

 about two years ago, a horse which had cost him two 

 hundred pounds, and was useless from a habit of stand- 

 ing still and rearing at the corner of streets ; he was 

 returned worse rather than better, and sold for forty 

 pounds. Six lessons from Mr. Rarey w^ould have pro- 

 duced, at least, temporary docihty. 



Monsieur Baucher, in his Methode cV Equitation, 

 says, spealing of the surprise created by the feats he per- 

 formed with trained horses, — " According to some, I 

 was a new ' Carter,'- taming my horses by depriving 

 them of rest and nourishment : others would have it, that 

 I tied ropes to their legs, and suspended them in the air ; 

 some again supposed that I fascinated them by the power 

 of the eye; and part of the audience, seeing my horses 

 (Partisan, Capitaine, Neptune, and Baridan) work in 

 time to my friend Monsieur Paul Cuzent's charming 

 music, seriously argued that the horses had a capital 

 ear for music, and that they stopped Avhen the clarionets 

 and trombones ceased to play, and that the music had 

 more power over the horse than I had. That the beast 



* Carter, one of the Van Amburgli showiuen. 



