AMATEUR HORSE-TRAINING. 3 



has been misunderstood, and bis feelings hurt a great 

 many times a day. Human beings are the only things 

 he seems afraid of. As for his awkward carriage, it is 

 no worse than that of the farm hand who has made 

 such a failure of trying to use him, and who is, never- 

 theless, when he stands up straight, a well-made, good- 

 looking fellow. A little careful handling will make 

 that animal as different from his present self as a dan- 

 dified English sergeant is from the raw recruit he once 

 was. What do you think of his name ? It is Sambo." 



But my wife was not to be led off on any side ques- 

 tion, and after intimating that such a plebeian appella- 

 tion struck her as quite suitable, she continued ; " Now 

 you know that Mr. " (the farmer of whom I pur- 

 chased) "knows a great deal more about horses than 

 you do; you must admit that, for he has been buying 

 and selling and driving them all his life, and lie doesn't 

 like him, or he wouldn't sell so cheap ; and as for 

 training him, for my part I don't believe horse-training 

 can be learned out of books, as a woman would learn a 

 receipt for making cake. Do get him to take the horse 

 back !" 



Now I have a great respect for my wife's opinion in 

 general, and in this particular case all her points seemed 

 well taken. 



The horse was tall, and I was short ; he was excitable, 

 and I hadn't the strength of a boy; he was very awk- 

 ward, and I had never trained a horse in my life. 



