8 THE ART OF TAMING HORSES. 



too much of him; have his head held that he may not get 

 up too suddenly, or before you wish him. You can do 

 this by placing your right foot on the right reins; this 

 keeps the horse's nose raised from the ground, and thus 

 depriv.es him of the power of strugghng successfully 

 against you. Profit by his present position to make 

 him sit up on his haunches, and in the position of 

 the ' Cheval Gastronomic.' " 



The difference between this and Earey's plan of lay- 

 ing down a horse is as great as between Franklin's kite 

 and Wheatstone's electrical telegraph ; and foremost to 

 acknowledge the American's merits was M. Baucher. 



So little idea had cavalry authorities that a horse could 

 be trained without severity, that, during the Crimean war, 

 a ]\Iademoiselle Isabel came over to this country with 

 strong recommendations from the French war minister, 

 and was employed at considerable cost at Maidstone 

 for some months in spoiling a number of horses by her 

 system, the principal features of wdiich consisted in a new 

 dumb jockey, and a severe spur attached to a whip ! 



It is true that Mademoiselle Isabel's experiment was 

 made contrary to the wishes and plans of the head of 

 the Cavalry Training Department, the late General 

 Griffiths ; but it is not less true that within the last two 

 years influential cavalry officers were looking for an im- 

 provement in training horses from an adroit use of the 

 whip and spur. 



From the time of Alexander the Great down to the 

 Northumberland Horse-Breaker, there have been in- 

 stances of courageous men who have been able to do 

 extraordinary things with horses. But they may be 

 divided into two classes, neither of which have been able 

 to originate or impart a system for the use of ordinary 

 horsemen. 



