100 THE HORSE. 



In those cases in which a horse is driven into doing 

 wrong, such misconduct, until it has become a regular 

 habit, is NOT VICE. 



For if you flog, spur, or otherwise punish a horse till 

 he acts wrongly, the fault is yours. All horses that are 

 good for anything, will resent improper usage; and if 

 you raise their mettle beyond your power of control, the 

 blame lies with you, and not with the horse. 



For the accomplishment of certain purposes with man, 

 the excitement of his passions and feelings is sometimes 

 successfully adopted; but an excess in this course frustrates 

 the object, and the result is the reverse of what is desired. 



The same is the case with the horse : by raising his 

 passions to a certain pitch, you bring out the evidences 

 of his high spirit in the most graceful action ; but, if you 

 venture a little too far, you raise in him a dangerous 

 spirit of opposition the more dangerous as such cases 

 occur only to bad horsemen, who unfortunately depend 

 entirely upon sheer strength for getting out of the diffi- 

 culty; the natural consequence being that the horse is 

 victorious, and from that and subsequent victories ac- 

 quires a vice most difficult to cure. 



Considering this subject of great importance, not only 

 to the owner, but to the noble animal whose welfare 

 every one acquainted with horses, cannot fail to have at 

 heart, I dwell upon this subject in the hope of making 

 proper treatment, and the consequences of ill-treatment, 

 well understood by all but especially by those who ignore 

 the fact that it is possible to rouse a horse's temper be- 

 yond their own notion of what is right, even if that horse 

 is not by nature vicious and of proving to the most ob- 

 tuse the absurdity, danger, and barbarity of excessive 

 and improper punishment. 



For it is but seldom that the horse requires correction, 

 and even then mildness will, in most instances, accom- 

 plish your purpose. 



