THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 53 



Old books of farriery mention a plan for taming 

 intractable horses, which, we believe, has gone out of 

 fashion only on account of the trouble attending it. 

 We should be glad to see it revived, for we are in- 

 clined to think it would be attended with very good 

 results. The horse was tethered in his stall, with 

 his tail to the manger, prevented from lying down 

 and kept without food or sleep for forty-eight hours or 

 more ; men, who relieved each other by turns, being 

 stationed at his head to rouse him whenever he began 

 to dose. This method was the same in principle as 

 that by which falconers used to tame their hawks ; 

 and there can be little doubt that the discipline which 

 could subdue those savage and impetuous birds, 

 would have been no less efficacious in bringing down 

 the unruly temper of the more generous quadruped. 



We have now to speak of certain horse-taming 

 exploits, which have in them a strong tincture of the 

 marvellous, but which are, nevertheless, authenticated 

 by undeniable evidence. 



At the Spring meeting of 1804, Mr, Whalley's 

 horse, King Pippin, was brought on the Curragh of 

 Kildare to run. He was a horse of the most strangely 

 savage and vicious disposition. His particular pro- 

 pensity was that of flying at and worrying any person 

 who came within his reach ; and, if he had an oppor- 



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