118 PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. 



They must be brought to a state of subjection ; but 

 at the same time they must neither be flurried nor 

 frightened, and must be on high feeding. Starving 

 down would not do here : no damp must be put on 

 their spirits: the stamina must be kept up, and 

 you have a high-couraged animal to deal with: if 

 he is once provoked sufficiently to exert his powers, 

 once comes to know them, by getting the best of the 

 set-to, which in such a case he is very likely to do, no 

 race-horse will ever he be. 



Now the difference of the system of the common 

 colt-breaker and the trainer is this : the first, by 

 punishment and brute force, breaks his colt of doing 

 wrong : the latter teaches his to do right ; he takes 

 care to avoid his being placed in situations and 

 under circumstances that might induce him to rebel. 

 Let the common breaker get a colt that is nervous, 

 timid, and apt to be frightened at any thing he meets 

 or sees, what would he do ? He would take the 

 horse purposely where he would be sure to meet 

 constant objects to alarm him : every time he starts, 

 the whip and spurs go to work in other words, 

 the heels : now, if he had a head that was of any use 

 to him, he would reflect a little, and this would show 

 him the folly and brutish ignorance of his conduct. 

 So because the colt is alarmed already by what he 

 sees, he frightens him ten times more by voice, whip, 

 and spur. Hence we so often find that after a horse 

 has shied, say at a carriage, when the object has 

 passed it takes a considerable time before he becomes 

 pacified. All this arises from the dread of punish- 

 ment which he has been accustomed to. Horses 

 have good memories, and do not easily forget ill 

 usage. We frequently see a man (if he be not 



