272 KESTIVENESS I ITS PREVENTION AND CURE. 



originally handled in this manner to habits of obedience, 

 than those that have been accustomed in their youth 

 to the English laissez faire method. 



It would be very easy perhaps more to the taste of 

 a certain class of readers to lay down certain rules for 

 this or that form of restiveness, and say, "Do this if a 

 horse rears, and that, if he rubs your knees against 

 a wall, or insists on going home when you want to 

 have a ride," but we have no faith in ready cut-and-dried 

 receipts, and abhor all empiricism most thoroughly ; 

 moreover, there is plenty of it to be found, by those 

 who prefer it, in most books on this subject. The real 

 truth of the matter is this : whatever particular form 

 of restiveness a horse may have recourse to "to defend 

 itself," the one great patent fact in all cases is dis- 

 obedience ; and therefore the one great object to be 

 attained is complete mastery over the animal's move- 

 ments, and not merely over its body by means of straps 

 and ropes. 



We have stated that the English system of handling 

 young horses is less likely of itself to produce insubordi- 

 nation directly, whilst the school system may, if abused, 

 tend to this result. On the other hand, we must rely 

 on the latter for the correction of restiveness ; and the 

 object of this chapter being to endeavour to show how 

 vice may be prevented and cured, it seems advisable to 

 lay before the reader a brief general sketch of both 

 systems, pointing out, as we proceed, what is useful for 

 our purpose in each, as also the means by which the 

 one may be made to work into the other. 



In the English method the first step is usually to 

 put a very thick, and consequently very gently-acting, 

 snaffle into the young horse's mouth, over which a 



