468 FAMILIAR TALK 



when I explained that the treatment must be repeated 

 out of doors to make him work equally well there, they 

 would regard it as sufficient proof that the horse would not 

 stay broken, and that the treatment was good for nothing. 

 Or, after being taken home, if not proved perfectly gentle 

 there, the treatment and experiment were regarded as a 

 failure. On this account I was continually between two 

 fires ; for to admit that there were any conditions of fail- 

 ure would prevent my making a class, and to have any bad 

 luck with a horse after his having been experimented upon, 

 would be equally bad. Not unfrequently I would be com- 

 pelled to drive horses in the street without the necessary 

 preparations, and take desperate chances ; or after driving 

 without trouble a really vicious, dangerous horse, the owner 

 would think he could do as much, and insist upon hitching 

 him up and driving, and if any accident resulted, the fault 

 would of course be laid to me. Very often, after desper- 

 ate horses that had previously resisted all effort to break, 

 had been driven before the class with perfect docility, the 

 owner, and not unfrequently the entire class, would de- 

 mand a return of their money, unless I would guarantee 

 that the horse could be driven home with perfect safety, 

 and this, too, after I had taken every precaution to explain 

 to them, before forming the class, that I could do but little 

 more at the time than to teach the owner how to manage 

 him — that he must be treated at home according to the di- 

 rections I should give. 



For example, when at a certain town in Northern Maine, 

 a five-year-old mare that had defied every effort to drive 

 in harness was brought to me for treatment. It being im- 

 possible to shoe her, as a last resort they put her in an ox- 

 frame to do so, but she struggled so desperately they could 

 tack on but one shoe. I stated that there would be no 

 trouble in breaking this mare, but that I could not do it be- 



