1)8 THE ART uF TAAIING HOBSES. 



clown." It is essential to unite these sections, because, 

 if you put a well-bred horse in harness with his leg up, 

 without first putting him down, it is ten to one but that 

 he throws himself down violently, breaks the shafts of 

 the vehicle, and his own knees. 



The following are the sections verbatim, of which I 

 shall afterwards give a paraphrase, v/ith illustrative wood- 

 cuts : — 



" Take up one fore-foot and bend his knee till his 

 hoof is bottom upwards, and nearly touching his body ; 

 then slip a loop over his knee, and up until it comes 

 above the pastern-joint, to keep it up, being careful to 

 draw the loop together between the hoof and pastern- 

 joint with a second strap of some kind to prevent the 

 loop from slipping down and coming off. This will 

 leave the horse standing on three legs ; you can now 

 handle him as you wish, for it is utterly impossible for 

 him to kick in this position. There is something in 

 this operation of taking up one foot, that conquers a 

 horse quicker and better than anything else you can do 

 to him. There is no process in the world equal to it to 

 break a kicking horse, for several reasons. First, there 

 is a principle of this kind in the nature of the horse ; 

 that by conquering one member, you conquer, to a great 

 extent, the whole horse. 



" You have perhaps seen men operate upon this prin- 

 ciple, by sewing a horse's ears together to prevent him 

 from kicking. I once saw a plan given in a newspaper 

 to make a bad horse stand to be shod, wdiich was to 

 fasten down one ear. There were no reasons given why 

 you should do so ; but I tried it several times, and 

 thought that it had a good effect — though I would not 

 recommend its use, especially stitching his ears to- 

 gether. The only benefit arising from this process is, 



