76 HOW WOMEN SHOULD RIDE 



fault, wilfully committed. Even then 



a battle should always be 

 Punishment . , , ., 



avoided, if possible, for it is 



better to spend a half-hour, or even 

 much more, gently but firmly urging a 

 horse to obedience than to fight him. 

 It sometimes drives him to such a 

 state of excitement and temper that 

 the effects of it will be perceptible for 

 days, sometimes weeks, in a nervous, 

 highly strung animal, and he will, per- 

 haps, prepare for a combat whenever the 

 same circumstances again arise. That 

 which comes from misconception on 

 the part of the horse is often treated 

 as though it were vice, and such unjust 

 chastisement, without accomplishing its 

 object, bewilders and frightens the un- 

 fortunate victim. Therefore one should 

 know positively that it is obstinacy or 

 vice, not dulness or timidity, which has 

 made the horse apparently resist his 



