Ill] 



PSYCHOLOGY AND TRAINING 



15 



to roll when he sees other horses rolling, etc. 

 This is of much use in training young horses. 



The horse becomes irritated, and perhaps 

 angry, if we do not please him, so we must 

 always aim at pleasing him whilst keeping him 

 obedient to our desires. 



The horse's character varies to a great extent, 

 and although much can be learnt about a horse 

 by an external examination of his conformation 

 and qualities, we must ride him and know him 

 for some days before we can judge his character. 



He may be good, bold, subject to fear, or bad. 

 The various factors that constitute his character 

 might be summed up as follows : the degree of 

 sensibility, as of fear, obstinacy ; willingness to 

 surrender to man ; viciousness ; the sensation of 

 touch, as tickling by the spurs ; the quality of 

 his will ; the sensitiveness of his mouth to the 

 rein and his flanks to the leg ; and the degree 

 of excitability to motion. 



Outward Signs 



55. Having considered the inward character 

 of the horse, let us briefly consider how his 

 various characteristics are made evident to the 

 observant onlooker by outward signs. 



The ears are a faithful index to the man. 

 The horse pricks his ears forward when he is 

 looking at an object intently, and when he is 

 afraid of something, and generally immediately 

 before jumping an object, etc. He depresses his 

 ears backwards when he is feeling in a bad 

 temper, when approached by another horse or 

 by a man to whom he objects, and when some- 

 thing is causing a tickling sensation, etc. He 

 turns them backwards, or turns one back only, 

 to receive sounds, as the voice of his rider or 

 driver. For this reason a highly strung horse 

 will often go along with one ear forward and 

 the other back, or he may continually move his 

 ears to and fro, in expectation of sounds. 



56. A quiet eye shows that the horse is quiet, 

 and a lively eye shows the opposite. A restless 

 eye indicates that the horse is uncertain, and is 

 looking out for his opportunity to resist, so we 

 must beware of such a horse. These horses, as 

 a rule, by continually looking to one side, show 

 an abnormal amount of the white of the eye. 

 Turbid eyes show that the horse is afraid. 



A horse neighs when he is alone and sees 

 company in the distance, or when left alone by 

 other horses. A mare sometimes neighs when 

 alone merely because she feels high-spirited. A 

 horse may neigh at seeing its stable, its groom, 

 its feed, or its master. A horse grunts or groans 

 from pain ; he may grunt from fear. He snorts 

 from fear or from anger, or when smelling an 

 objectionable odour. He raises his upper lip and 

 nose when he objects to an odour or a taste. 



57. Swishing the tail is common with some 

 mares who are of an irritable disposition. This 



is generally brought on and then encouraged by 

 bad riders continually using their legs or by bad 

 drivers continually jerking the reins or chirrup- 

 ing with their mouths. A bad driver with bad 

 "hands" is often responsible for a horse trying 

 to relieve its sore mouth by attempting to grab 

 the reins with its tail. (For the cure of such 

 trouble, see Chapter VI.) Swishing the tail may 

 be the result of excitement, obstinacy, bladder 

 trouble or temper. 



A tail held high is generally the sign of good 

 breeding, but a horse may carry it exceptionally 

 high when excited or when in fear. He de- 

 presses his tail sometimes when in fear — par- 

 ticularly when he is expecting the whip, and 

 instinctively at all times to protect his quarters. 

 A depressed tail may be a sign of sluggishness 

 or of poor breeding, or it may mean that the 

 horse is fatigued or cold. 



A staring coat means ill-health or excessive 

 cold. Trembling, as a rule, means great fear, 

 and is really distinct from shivering, which may 

 be the result of cold or of the action of certain 

 drugs, as eserine. 



Superiority of Man 



58. The horse does not instinctively believe 

 man to be superior. In the first place he prob- 

 ably thinks nothing about it ; but, if he does con- 

 sider the matter, he thinks that he himself is 

 superior, and tries to resist man. If our oppo- 

 sition fails, he learns his superiority ; therefore, 

 if we are trying to stop him from doing an act 

 and discover that we cannot stop him, we must 

 let him do it, and by this let him think that we 

 are not trying to stop him. Our superior power 

 is only imaginary, and it is due to the horse's 

 great imagination that we are able to deceive 

 him as to which of us is superior in strength. 

 No one should suggest for one moment that we 

 can control the horse by pure strength ; we 

 could not stop a runaway horse by pulling with 

 a leather rein if he knew that he was superior 

 to man in strength. 



If a horse starts to run back, it would be 

 foolish to try to hold him by the rein, and there- 

 fore we must allow him to run back ; he will 

 thus think that we want him to do so. If, how- 

 ever, we tried to stop him, he would discover that 

 he could oppose our efforts, and thus learn his 

 superiority of strength. If we cause him to run 

 farther back after he has stopped, we shall make 

 a better impression on him and make him 

 dislike running back. 



Our first object is, therefore, to show the 

 horse our apparent superiority, and to do this 

 we use our superior intelligence against his 

 inferior. Our principle is to prevent him doing 

 what he wants to do and to make him do what 

 we want him to do, little by little, caressing 

 him whenever he obeys, and punishing him 



