176 METHODS OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



digious sensation in the days when most of us were young. 

 There, on a silver vase in relief, is a Scythian warrior 

 lassoing a horse ; there he is strapping its fore leg up ; 

 there, again, he has it on its knees ; and finally, in the 

 last group, it stands, saddled, bridled, ' tamed.' Probably 

 there is not one of these latest methods which could not be 

 traced in ancient times. And still somehow we go on 

 breaking horses in in the accustomed way, and vice is as 

 common as ever." 



Sample's horse-taming machine. — As a development 

 of the head and tail system — of which he was a great 

 admirer — Sample brought out and patented in 1891 a 

 machine by which he proposed to tame horses. It con- 

 sisted of a box, which was supposed to hold the horse, and 

 which he rotated either by hand or steam at a speed 

 sufficient to render the enclosed animal so giddy, that 

 on being taken out, it would be perfectly quiet to 

 handle for the time being, no matter how wild it had 

 previously been. The exhibition of this machine in Lon- 

 don was a failure ; partly because its inventor did not 

 provide himself with a supply of wild horses, with which to 

 demonstrate its power. I feel certain that it would be a 

 valuable means for saving labour in rendering quiet freshly- 

 caught horses which have been brought up under uncivi- 

 lized conditions. 



- South African method of breaking. — The usual way 

 adopted by the Boers of the Cape Colony, Transvaal, 

 Orange Free State, and Natal for breaking in their horses. 



