556 Tnh Book of the Horse. 



breaking are always the same. To apply these principles in the best manner requires the 

 services of an artist, a born horseman, with courage, temper, patience, and constant practice 

 from his youth upwards. This equestrian schoolmaster may not be able to read or write, 

 but he must have been a thoughtful student of that page of nature which it is his business 

 to read. 



On the South American pampas, where the horses are naturally of a very docile temperament, 

 and where for hundreds of miles no barrier, no hill, scarcely a stone, interrupts the horseman's 

 gallop, the Gauchos lasso a wild horse, throw him down, cover his head with a cloak, girth a 

 heavy demi-piqucd saddle on him, thrust into his mouth a huge Spanish curb-bit, capable of 

 breaking a jaw at one effort, mount him with a pair of spurs with rowels as large as a cheese-plate, 

 and gallop him until he sinks exhausted. But horses so tamed, if not vicious, are generally 

 thoroughly cowed, and lose nearly all the sympathetic spirit that makes riding a pleasure. 

 And when these same Gauchos tried their plan on high-bred Australian horses, they failed 

 miserably. 



In Australia the majority of the horses are vicious, and given to the trick of buck-jumping, 

 that is, a succession of leaps from all four to all four legs. This is chiefly due to defective 

 breaking, which, practised year after year, has created and cultivated hereditary vice. Labour 

 is dear, the breakers are bold horsemen, and quite ignorant of the art of gradually breaking, 

 if they cared to spare the time. In addition, the object of many Australian horsemen, when 

 they take a young horse in hand, is not to pacify but to irritate him, to make him do his worst, 

 and show that they can sit out his most violent buck-jumps. " There are no people in the 

 world who can sit a vicious horse like the Australian-born Englishmen of the bush districts 

 of New South Wales. They are, as a rule, tall, slight, with long wiry arms and legs. They 

 are a muscular, active, and a decidedly sober race." " Ask one of them to ride a horse that 

 has just thrown you — he examines the girths, crupper, and bridle, without a sign of emotion. 

 If the tackle is right, he lifts his hat, lets the string fall under his chin as he replaces it, carelessly 

 gathers up the reins, and mounts. If he knew French he would say, J'y suis, je reste. He 

 enjoys the row in his own quiet way, resists the most violent buck-jumping, and dismounts 

 as calmly as he mounted. Snaffle-bridles are the rule, curbs are rarely seen. A crupper is 

 indispensable ; without one either the saddle is forced on the neck, or the girths are burst in 

 the horse's struggles to get rid of his rider. The Australian crupper is not fastened to a D 

 as in English military saddles. That, in the ordinary struggles, would be broken. It is passed 

 between the saddle-stuffing and the saddle-tree, and comes out on each side of the pommel, 

 then is passed two or three times round a stick, about twenty inches long, as thick as the 

 wrist, called the kid, and then buckled. The kid is strapped to two iron D's fixed behind the 

 pommel. This kid comes across the horseman about six inches above the knees, and helps 

 to keep him in the saddle." 



It may be assumed, for the purpose of this chapter, that breeders of horses and the buyers 

 of unbroken three-year-olds have the means and the time for giving them a regular education. 

 To set down every step to be followed in breaking a young horse would occupy more 

 space than can be spared, even if it were possible to learn the niceties of such an art 

 from printed instructions ; I shall therefore be content with laying down the broad principles 

 of horscbrcaking (no one detests principles like your practical man), and adding a few hints 

 on what should, and still more important, should not be done. 



The principles of horsebreaking are nowhere more clearly and concisely stated than in the 

 original jjamphlet by Mr. Rarcy, of which I edited an illustrated edition in ICS5S. Mr. Rarcy 



