INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE 85 



greater the return. At the same time, you must have 

 complete mastery over him, and let him know it without 

 going out of your way unnecessarily to make him feel 

 it. In this way you engender in him a feeling of con- 

 fidence, and altogether strengthen the ties of sympathy 

 and affection. Your mastery must not be only and 

 purely physical that is to say, a practical proof of your 

 ability to ride him but by working on and through his 

 sympathy and affections, and by establishing confidence, 

 you should exercise a moral ascendency a species of 

 moral magnetism over him, that will give you the 

 entire victory, and place him completely under your 

 control and influence. 



That the bond of sympathy between man and horse 

 expands and ripens into affection on the part of the 

 latter I fully believe. Although, of course, his intel- 

 ligence being on a greatly inferior scale to that of 

 humanity, his affection is naturally of a lower form and 

 grade, originating as it does first of all from good treat- 

 ment and kindness literaUy through the stomach but 

 strengthened and developed from constant and con- 

 tinuous association, and it is therefore of a grosser, less 

 retentive, and more variable nature than man's. I 

 could more clearly illustrate my meaning and my con- 

 tentions by producing examples and relating anecdotes 

 of my experience with horses, but I am afraid I have 

 already too far digressed. 



It is usual to attribute the behaviour of horses on 

 certain occasions purely to timidity or fear. But I 

 think we are too apt to jump to conclusions when 

 animal nature is concerned, and to put everything down 

 entirely to fear or nervousness, especially with a horse, 



