42 THEORY OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



I have known horses which, after they left their breaker, 

 became almost unrideable by the majority of people from 

 having been " spoiled " by bad management ; and yet 

 whenever their breaker happened to ride them again, they 

 appeared almost instantly to forget their lately-acquired 

 tricks, and comported themselves as sedately as they had 

 previously done with him. 



Punishment and reward are the two great means by 

 which we can establish, for purposes of education, the 

 required association of ideas in the mind of the horse, 

 whose affection for us and whose love of our admiration 

 are, as I have already said, too slight to be profitably 

 utilised. Punishment is far more effective than reward, 

 which, I regretfully feel compelled to say, might be 

 altogether laid aside without any appreciable interfer- 

 ence with the progress of a horse's instruction. I make 

 this statement from practical experience, and not from 

 sentimental considerations, with which I have at present 

 no concern. In deference to long-established stable 

 usage, I here employ the expression " punishment " for 

 the infliction of pain, independently of its object. Thus, 

 a race-horse is often said to run gamely under punish- 

 ment, which in that case means the application of whip, 

 or spurs, or of both, as a stimulus to increased exer- 

 tion. We should bear in mind that humanity, as well 

 as self-interest, enacts that the breaker is justified in 

 inflicting suffering on the horse only as a means of 

 education, but not as a penalty for wrong-doing, which 

 is a question of morality that does not concern him. In 



