16 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[chap. 



slightly whenever he disobeys. As in a child, 

 nearly all disobedient acts are those done 

 through the child being able to do what he was 

 asked not to do ; so in the horse, this is the 

 chief cause of disobedience. Therefore, we must 

 be most careful to see he does not do what he 

 wants to do and what we do not want him to do. 



59. Want of exercise, and therefore excessive 

 exuberance of spirits, may cause him to become 

 refractory, and may allow him to think that he 

 is superior to man. A horse may learn his 

 superiority over man by being badly used by a 

 groom, when he may be driven to act in self- 

 defence. A timid horse will not act in self- 

 defence ; this is the type of horse that the 

 coward chooses to abuse. A spirited horse 

 detests the very sight of a coward : this is the 

 type of man that is responsible for so many bad 

 horses ; he is always a bully. A horse, when 

 he acts in this manner in self-defence, will find 

 that the cowardly groom ceases to abuse him ; 

 in fact, he will find that, by attacking, he be- 

 comes the victor — hence the knowledge of his 

 superiority is gained. 



Obedience 



60. A horse should not be allowed to do an 

 act that shows disobedience. Fortunately, he 

 readily acknowledges obedience. A well-trained 

 horse is next to a well-trained dog ; the latter 

 is the most obedient animal we have. Love 

 must be gained before obedience is taught ; 

 without the former — affection for its trainei* — the 

 horse will never be made really obedient. The 

 stronger the horse physically, and the better his 

 feeding, the greater must be his obedience. To 

 obtain a high degree of obedience, the horse 

 must have a good disposition. Such a horse 

 likes obedience ; it pleases him to please us, be- 

 cause it is one of his instincts to seek pleasure, 

 and by pleasing us he receives caresses and tit- 

 bits which associate pleasure in his mind. 



61. We obtain obedience from the horse by 

 means of love and fear. By means of love alone 

 he would be tempted to obey his own impulses ; 

 by both we persuade him to obey us. Physical 

 force may be adopted to cause physical 

 obedience, but it really only increases fear, pro- 

 ducing obedience as long as the physical force 

 exists and perhaps for a very short time after- 

 wards. This method of training a horse would 

 be a sure way of spoiling him. 



The whole secret of imparting love and fear 

 in the right proportions to a horse is a know- 

 ledge of how to do it, which, I claim, is an 

 acquisition gained by few. The knowledge of 

 successful horse-training is a very rare gift, and 

 the inspiration of obtaining obedience from the 

 equine pupil is the most difficult duty of the 

 master. It is useless to try to obtain obedience 

 until we have obtained love and the horse's con- 



fidence, because before we can obtain confidence 

 we shall have to resort to a certain amount of 

 punishment in order to inspire fear. If we 

 inflict punishment before we have gained his 

 confidence, we shall cause him to hate us, to try 

 to flee from us ; he will misunderstand the 

 punishment, and think we are doing him harm. 

 In extreme cases punishment may have to be 

 given before confidence is gained, but only a 

 trainer of wide experience will know when this 

 is necessary. 



All acts that make the horse do what we 

 want him to do and prevent him from doing 

 what we do not want him to do tend to teach 

 him obedience. If a horse wants to turn down 

 one road, and we prevent him, we teach him 

 our superiority ; but if we are unable to, and 

 he goes on, he learns that he can satisfy his 

 wants by disobeying us, and thus learns his 

 superiority of strength. As was said before, it 

 will be better to let him go than to try to resist 

 but eventually to give in. 



62. Obedience may be temporarily obtained 

 by his greater power of self-preservation, which 

 is an instinct, but even this will be uncommon 

 in well-trained horses. 



It must always be borne in mind that 

 physical pain may cause a horse to be dis- 

 obedient, or it may even compel him to be 

 obedient. For example, I was teaching a horse 

 the " reining-back " lesson. I had taught him 

 this on foot for several days, and he obeyed 

 well, but whenever I mounted him he refused 

 to step back, however much I collected him. I 

 dismounted and examined his hocks, and found 

 a painful curb on his near hock ; this was the 

 cause of his apparent disobedience. My extra 

 weight had so increased the pain that he refused 

 to perform the act that I wanted him to do. 



The only successful way to teach obedience 

 is to be helped by an assistant, and to resort to 

 the use of the cavesson and a strong leading- 

 rein ; the trainer himself must be on foot. The 

 horse will be led about and coaxed to do certain 

 things, and punished slightly at first for distinct 

 acts of disobedience. It must always be quite 

 plain before punishing that the horse under- 

 stands exactly what you require of him. Most 

 apparent disobedience is caused through the 

 trainer asking him to do something that he (the 

 horse) does not understand. 



63. The horse very quickly picks up what we 

 teach him if he is taught the right way. In 

 many cases he is considered slow at learning, 

 when the cause of this apparent slowness is in 

 reality due to the master not knowing the correct 

 methods of teaching. 



Lessons must be short, and repeated often, in 

 order not to strain or tire the muscles, etc. 

 Training must never be hurried, as hurrying 

 may cause serious physical harm, besides prob- 

 ably spoiling the horse's disposition. 



