188 TROUBLESOME HORSE. 



mind my feat at Oxford. Here, however, 

 was no canal. There was a stable at a lone 

 house, and not even a break to try him in 

 nearer than Cambridge. I do not pretend 

 to have the acumen or experience of Mr. 

 Rarey, whose abilities I should like to have 

 seen tested upon a variety of tempers that 

 have come under my own supervision ; but 

 I concluded this animal had been tried in 

 the usual way, and that nothing could be 

 made of him. I thought that when this 

 horse should be put beside the one he in- 

 tended to match, as off-leader, he would be 

 free from the confinement of the pole and 

 pole-chain, and finding himself at liberty, 

 and seeing nothing before him but the road, 

 that he would suffer himself to be led off by 

 the other, and gradually take up his work. 

 But I was mistaken. I had no sooner 

 got on the box and spoken to the team, 

 than he turned himself round, with his 

 head over the other horse's loins, then reared 

 on his hind legs as if he were going over 



