570 The Book of the Horse. 



his corn, waiting and soothing between each snap, and, when well accustomed to the slight 

 report, proceeding with gradually increasing charges, until he comes to associate gun-fire with 

 feeding-time. After he is quite reconciled to the noise you may let him see the flash — not 

 pointed at him — and finally fire from between his ears. 



I have heard — and can fully believe — a story of a lot of horses galloping up from the meadows 

 where they were grazing, straight into a shed on hearing the report of a gun, because they 

 had been trained to associate their feeds of oats with the discharge of a firearm. 



But where a horse that has been regularly used displays an aversion to firearms which 

 does not yield to ordinary treatment, he must be Rareyfied, as if for an operation, and made 

 fast. The operator must then seat himself on him, or alongside him, and give him the before- 

 mentioned pistol lessons, caressing and feeding him between each discharge until he becomes 

 thoroughly reconciled to the operation. 



After one or two lessons, according to his temperament, he may be mounted after one 

 leg has been strapped, and a small charge of powder fired from his back ; then he may be 

 let entirely loose in a school, and finally the same lessons may be repeated in the open air. 

 Of course a naturally nervous pony is not fit for a shooting pony, but the experience of the 

 army proves that any average horse can be taught to stand still and stand fire. 



The rationale of this treatment is exemplified in the suburbs of such manufacturing cities 

 as Manchester, where steam-engines roar at the corner of every thoroughfare, and locomotives 

 rush along a network of railways night and day. The cattle in the fields pay no attention to 

 the railway trains. The valuable horses ridden and driven by the wealthy manufacturers 

 treat all these horrid sights and sounds with as much indifference as the sheep and cows " to 

 the manner born," while a horse imported from any truly rural unrailroaded district, however 

 naturally placid, will go half-mad at the sight of the first express train, and obstinately refuse 

 to go down any street where steam is blowing off from a boiler. 



In the preceding pages the principles and practices of the Rarey system have been sufifi- 

 ciently described for any horseman to understand and follow. It requires patience, it requires 

 the habit of dealing with horses, as well as a calm, courageous temperament; but for the real 

 work activity is more essential than strength. 



Rarey's reputation has suffered from the inevitable reaction after an extraordinary season 

 of sensation, and it is often sneered at by writers who are ignorant of or incapable of com- 

 prehending the principles of horsebreaking which he illustrated in his lectures. The best proof 

 of his merit is the admiration which he excited amongst the finest horsemen of that or any 

 other day, such as the late Earl of Jersey and Sir Charles Knightly. 



When I visited the late Sir Tatton Sykes at Sledmere (who had passed his life amongst 

 horses), he said "It was well worth the fee (^lO los.) to see Mr. Rarey's manner of approach- 

 ing an unbroken colt." Colonel Anstruther Thompson, who has been a Master of Fox-hounds 

 from the time he was nineteen, a cavalry soldier, and one of the best horsemen of the day 

 across any country, after telling me that he was always ready to buy any horse of good quality, 

 however vicious, up to his weight and over sixteen hands, added, " Rarey taught us a 

 great deal about horsebreaking." 



VALUE OF FINISHING LESSONS. 



When a colt has gone through the course of instruction described in the preceding pages 

 he will be fit for the regular work of an ordinary riding horse, and quite ready for the hands 

 of the hunter-breaker. 



