RAPID METHODS OF BREAKING. 55 



of such expedition in military exigencies, and in all cases 

 where time is an object. " Spoiled " horses which have 

 learned to know their own power, would naturally take 

 longer to break than entirely unhandled animals ; although 

 a limit of a week need not usually be exceeded even with 

 them. The possibility of reclaimed horses going back to 

 their old tricks should be provided against by judicious 

 repetition of the necessary discipline, which would rarely 

 be needed after the first three or four days, if the animal 

 be mouthed and suppled in the manner I shall hereafter 

 describe. Without using any forcible methods, which, as a 

 rule, would not be required with a valuable horse, the 

 breaker ought not to need more than a week to make any 

 ordinary horse fit for all the usual requirements of saddle 

 or harness, as far as quietness and obedience go. His 

 higher education, especially in the formation of his paces, 

 and, if a 'cross-country horse, in teaching him to collect 

 and extend himself properly when jumping, would probably 

 occupy the breaker's time for another month or two. 



To those who might advance the argument that because 

 the ordinary course of breaking takes more than ten times 

 as long as the methods I advocate, it must therefore be 

 more permanent in its influence ; I would beg to submit that 

 such a contention would hold good only on the untenable 

 supposition that the efl"ects of the respective processes were 

 equal in force. I see no possible benefit, except the 

 questionable one of giving the animal an exaggerated 

 opinion of his own powers of resistance, in taking a month 

 to accomplish what may be done quite as efficiently in an 

 hour ; as, for instance, making a fractious horse steady to 



