HEAD AND TAIL METHOD. 173 



animals are not also afflicted with stubbornness, in which 

 case a course of making them lie down (see page 161) 

 and keeping them on the ground (see page 165), would 

 be more appropriate. While using the head and tail 

 method, I have never had a horse hurt himself, even 

 when he has fallen on the side to which his head is 

 turned, as will sometimes happen. 



After having given the head and tail plan a trial of 

 several years in hundreds of cases in various parts of the 

 world ; I now rarely employ it, except as a means for 

 saving labour. Its chief weak point is that it teaches 

 nothing except quietness, which can, as a rule, be better 

 obtained by the use, for instance, of the long reins and 

 rope-twitch. We can also inculcate by the former, 

 obedience to the " aids " ; and, by latter, obedience to the 

 voice, which can also be taught to a considerable extent 

 by the long reins. If the horse is quiet enough to carry 

 a man on his back, riding him round and turning him in 

 small circles will certainly improve his manners more than 

 letting him, with his head tied to his tail, go round and 

 round until he sees fit to stand still ; to say nothing of the 

 instruction he gets at the same time in control by hand 

 and leg. I have known several instances of aggressively 

 vicious horses, which had apparently *' given in " during 

 a head and tail lesson, become in a few hours far worse 

 in their temper, seemingly from resentment at having 

 been rendered temporarily helpless, and from knowledge 

 that, with their freedom, they had regained their power 

 of inflicting injury on those whom they, rightly or wrongly, 

 regarded as ther tormentors. 



