The Nerves. 73 



well broken one or not ; that is to say, whether 

 he has or has not been successfully taught to 

 arch his neck and gather his haunches under 

 him when collected by the hands and legs of 

 his rider. If so, you will in the great majority 

 of cases find it perfectly easy to subdue him. 

 Strike him with the spurs and take a pull at 

 his head, and he will come together at once. 



Of course I do not mean that a well edu- 

 cated horse will never rebel. Well educated 

 horses, like well educated men, can make fools 

 of themselves if they choose. He may rear, 

 run back, stand still, or kick and plunge ; and 

 if you try to ride him over a cliff, or into a 

 furnace, he will probably do so. But in this 

 case his rebellion will be deliberate and reso- 

 lute ; and every man who has felt the extra- 

 ordinary moral authority possessed by a good 

 horseman over his horse, knows how much it 

 takes to make a well ridden horse deliberately 

 and resolutely rebel. It is by petty tricks and 

 subterfuges that an ordinary horse tries to 

 baffle his rider ; and it is scarcely too much to 

 say that of such manoeuvres a properly edu- 

 cated horse becomes absolutely incapable. 



You will thus perceive that obedience to 



