SECURING ATTENTION. 39 



place him. To render him steady under future provocation, 

 it is well to make him bear with equanimity all possible 

 kinds of terrifying sights and sounds and to oblige him to 

 endure being touched all over without flinching. The higher 

 we try him in these respects — it being of course understood 

 that the causes of alarm do not entail pain — the quieter 

 will he be if anything startling happens to him during 

 actual work. The mere accustoming a horse to unfamiliar 

 sights, sounds and feelings, is not a reliable method for 

 making him steady ; because, if permitted to do so, he will 

 often, particularly when he is fresh, assume a frightened 

 demeanour which may be pure affectation on his part, but 

 which may be fraught with danger to his rider or driver. 

 On the contrary, he should be taught to devote his entire 

 attention to carying out the orders of his master, and not 

 to attempt to take the initiative, unless he receives the 

 signal that he can act for himself for the time being. 



Making a horse understand our orders. — We know 

 from experience that the horse, to be well broken in, must 

 not alone be quiet ; but must also thoroughly understand 

 the meaning of the various orders we give him. Al- 

 though his intelligence is not developed highly enough to 

 enable us to teach him our spoken language ; we may by 

 the establishment of certain signals render him capable of 

 knowing our wishes, in the carrying out of which, their clear 

 comprehension is naturally the first step. Our conventional 

 language or signals should, I need hardly say, be those 

 which he can best understand. Hence, in this endeavour 

 we should work on his most highly developed mental faculty, 



