HORSE-TAMING AND BREAKING 191 



quences of rebellion, and here is an anecdote to the 

 point : 



' Some years ago Captain , a well-known 



steeplechase rider, bought at Tattersall's, for a very 

 small sum, a magnificent horse, that no stranger in 

 the yard dared approach, and which was, therefore, 

 honestly put up and sold as a "man-killer." 



' On these propensities being explained by the 

 purchaser to his head-groom, the resolute fellow 

 bluntly replied that he would not at all object to take 

 care of the beast provided he were allowed, " in self- 

 defence, to kill or cure him ; " and, accordingly, as 

 soon as the homicide entered his stable, with a steady 

 step, but avoiding looking into his eye, he walked up 

 to him and then, not waiting for a declaration o^ 

 war, but with a short heavy bludgeon striking the 

 insides of his knees he knocked his forelegs from 

 under him, and, the instant he fell, belaboured his 

 head and body until the savage proprietor of both 

 became so completely terrified, that he ever after- 

 wards seemed almost to quail whenever his conqueror 

 walked up to him.' 



But this system certainly should not be adopted 

 till the kindness that tamed the zebra has been tried. 

 It sometimes happens that a so-called vicious horse 

 has merely an antipathy to certain objects or indi- 

 viduals. A comic case is related of how a horse was 

 cured of his objection to pigs : 



' A merchant of the name of Grant, of the Mile 



