Suppling the Horse. 87 



sated by the unimpaired strength and courage 

 which enable him to perform such wonderful 

 feats in the field. 



The Asiatic horseman chooses his course as 

 logically, though perhaps less judiciously. He 

 deliberately fetters the action of his horse in 

 order to make him manageable. He never 

 mounts without first securing the animal's 

 head in a vertical, or almost vertical, position 

 by means of a standing martingale. Thus 

 manacled, and ridden by a dexterous horseman 

 with sharp stirrups and bit, the colt can, after 

 a very few days' practice, be forced to execute 

 any manoeuvre which his rider may require. 

 But he is unable to leap a fence or to gallop 

 at speed until released from his unnatural 

 confinement ; and if released he becomes, of 

 course, as unmanageable as he ever was. 



The horseman of continental Europe adopts 

 a compromise, by which he expects to secure 

 the combined advantages of these two methods, 

 but which is usually found only to unite their 

 inconveniences. He puts his horse through 

 a long and painful course of school discipline, 

 whose ordinary effect is permanently to cow 

 the animal's spirit and cripple his paces. The 



