FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



time hurry your deliberate horse and make a 

 " flyer " of him, it takes much patience and a 

 good man to restrain your impetuous friend to 

 other methods, and make of him the calm and 

 collected patent-safety conveyance which we all 

 prefer. 



The writer's own methods of schooling, applied 

 to hundreds of horses, and always satisfactorily, 

 save in a few cases of broken legs and necks 

 which could not be prevented if education was to 

 progress (the risks being fair for both because 

 they were mutual), were always to get on a horse, 

 and take him out jumping, with hounds if pos- 

 sible, but anyhow never to let the pupil imagine 

 for a moment that the excursion was a task, but 

 to understand that he was only doing what he 

 saw other horses do ; going where they went, and 

 always on the way to some place. Thus it was 

 the custom, after the horse had been kept a few 

 days at the stable, and ridden about the roads so 

 that he had a general idea where home was (the place 

 where he always was cared for), to start off with a 

 boy on a " made " jumper, ride away into the 

 country a few miles, turn into somebody's field or 

 woodlands, and ride across country toward home, 

 taking what chance might bring. The steady horse 



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