Schooling Hunters 57 



prize-winners at Madison Square and fairs in western New 

 York. 



Whyte-Melville, in his work " Riding Recollections," 

 has something of the same import to say about Irish brood 

 mares. In some counties of Ireland, he relates, the brood 

 mare, with foal-at-foot, is allowed to run wild over exten- 

 sive districts and leaps in leisurely fashion over stone 

 hedges or mounds of turned-up sod from pasture to pasture, 

 never asking for a gate. Wherever the mother goes the 

 little one dutifully follows, acquiring instinctive courage 

 and sagacity that are afterward to be the admiration of 

 crowded hunting-fields. 



Certain general principles of horse-lore the trainer should 

 always bear in mind : 



( 1 ) The horse is intellectually the most highly devel- 

 oped and temperamentally the most nervous of domestic 

 animals. 



(2) He is capable of being trained to a very high de- 

 gree of proficiency in any direction consistent with his 

 environment. 



( 3 ) His one great weakness is fear ; yet he may come to 

 have such confidence in man that he will perform feats of 

 daring and face danger which under ordinary circumstances 

 he would never attempt. 



(4) The secret of successful horse education is the de- 

 velopment of confidence, and anything, therefore, that can 

 be done to strengthen or promote confidence may be 

 accounted an aid to his education. Similarly, anything 

 conducive to fear is a hindrance to his schooling. 



On these simple fundamental principles " hangs all the 



