198 EDUCATING THE HORSE. 



equestrianism depends on the early training of 

 the horse for this dehghtful exercise. The 

 rider who feels that he has beneath him an ani- 

 mal obedient to his slightest wish, and which 

 responds to a touch of the heel or the lightest 

 pressure of the bit, moving to the lifting or the 

 falling of the bridle, such a rider feels almost as 

 though the horse on which he sits forms a por- 

 tion of himself, and courses onward with a 

 delightful sense of power and freedom. Nearly- 

 all of this excellence in a riding-horse depends 

 on the way in which he has been educated while 

 young. Faults then acquired may be corrected, 

 it is true, in later years, yet it is far more desir- 

 able that they should never have been formed, 

 but, in place thereof, the qualities secured which 

 form the excellence of a horse. 



I throw out these suggestions at this point, for 

 I am now dealing with the early education of 

 the colt ; later in the book I shall have to speak 

 more of faults to be corrected, and it is my wish 

 to impress on my reader the great importance of 

 the kind of education which the colt receives at 

 his hands. 



