TO THE HORSE: ITS TAMING, 



nature of the animal about to be trained. It is an 

 acknowledged fact that in very many cases a handsome, 

 valuable colt (when unbroken), and one that has never 

 shown the least particle of vice, has been returned to 

 the owner's hands a vicious, scarred, worthless brute, that 

 has had to be sold at a great sacrifice. One gentleman 

 in Yorkshire told me he had lost £600 in two years by 

 " bad breakers " — I should call them good " breakers " 

 of ine?i — the more business they did the quicker their 

 patrons would be ruined. I also think that the term 

 " breaking " is a wrongly applied word, it should be 

 " taming and training." 



To review all the different systems that have been 

 practised for generations past would be almost an 

 impossibility for any single individual, but I will 

 just touch upon a few of them. Every system 

 should have a practical basis, one that can be easily 

 explained. For every step in the process of training, a 

 man should be able to give his reason. I think that one 

 of the most serious mistakes made in the basis of the 

 old system has been that the trainer has endeavoured 

 to manage, govern, and train his colt from an 

 intelligent standpoint, or by giving to the animal the 

 power of reasoning. To my mind horses do not possess 

 reasoning faculties at all. If the horse had, he would 

 no longer be the servant of man; he would, in all 

 cases, be man's master (being so much his superior 

 physically), and he would also kick the heads off half the 



