202 The Book' of the Horse. 



such an animal in a town, because a bound of a yard or even of a few inches may bring 

 horse and rider on the pole or the wheels of a carriage. Supposing the eyesight all right, 

 there are few cases of shying — that is, alarm — that may not be cured ; but it must be done by 

 some good-tempered, patient person, who will give up days to the task. 



There is nothing at which horses are more fearfully alarmed than at camels. The proprietor 

 of a circus informed me that he found that all horses, even thoroughbred stallions in high 

 condition, after being shut up in a stable within sight of camels for a few days, paid no more 

 attention to a hideous double-humped dromedary than to a horse. Railway trains at first 

 alarm horses very much, not only from the strange sight of a big black object rushing along 

 belching out white steam, but from the shrieking sound ; but if a horse is quietly led and firmly 

 held in a field or road running parallel to a railway train, but with his head away from it as it 

 passes him, after a very short time he will treat the train, the smoke, the fire, the steam- 

 whistles, and the steam-cloud, with perfect indifference. A hansom cab horse, that could be 

 with difficulty held by half a dozen men the first time he saw and heard a train at the Great 

 Eastern station, having been treated as above described for a few days stood on the rank 

 facing the arrival trains and never flinched. It cannot be too strongly stated that whipping, 

 spurring, forcing a horse to face the object that excites terror, or any violence, may do a 

 great deal of harm, and cannot do any good. A cavalry officer informs me that in his ex- 

 perience he only knew one horse out of hundreds that could not be broken to stand regimental 

 sights and sounds. 



Few gentlemen have the time or the patience required for breaking a colt or a full-aged 

 horse of his terrors. It is much better to confide the task to a man whose business it is, and 

 whose system discards the use of whip and spur. The best horseman may not only be dis- 

 mounted by a shying horse wheeling round when least expected, but find himself under the 

 wheels of a butcher's cart, driven at butcher's pace. A fine-tempered, but high-couraged hack, 

 when ridden in London for the first time, found so many sights and sounds alarming that it 

 was a work of danger to get him from Kensington to Westminster. In a short time, by quiet 

 firm treatment, he became accustomed to meet, pass, and be passed by omnibuses, pleasure- 

 vans, and all the ordinary vehicles of the street ; but with the time at my disposal I was less 

 successful in accustoming him to three particular objects of his aversion — a fizzing railway train 

 passing under a bridge he had constantly to cross, a line of guardsmen on the march, and the 

 drum and pipes of Punch. On one occasion, cantering up the slope of a bridge just as an engine 

 passed blowing off its steam, he stopped and reared round so suddenly that he tore off a hind 

 shoe. I sent him to an anti-whip-and-spur horse-breaker ; and, after a fortnight of daily 

 practice, he met locomotives, drums, firearms, and scarlet banners, as calmly as the oldest 

 trooper in the life-guards. When very fresh he would curvet a little, but never attempted to 

 turn round. Previous to this breaking he would try to run away at the sight of soldiers in 

 line or on the march. 



Well-bred horses, properly broken, are more courageous than coarsely-bred horses. Indian 

 sportsmen say that only a high-bred Arab can be depended on in spearing a fierce boar or 

 leopard. Therefore, although thoroughbred horses resist violently, they are easily taught 

 when once put in such a position that they cannot resist. 



I had a thoroughbred mare, full of fire and courage, that no train, sight, or sound, .seemed 

 to alarm. She would face the foot-guards, marching with their band, as if she enjoyed the 

 sight, and was perfectly steady, although excited ; but when taken into the hunting-field for 

 the first time, being then at least ten years old, as soon as she heard the hounds give tongue 



