DOCILITY OF THE AMERICAN RACERS. 121 



injurious effect on the general temper of the animal ; though 

 not, perhaps, so greatly as to account for all the difference al- 

 luded to above. 



If it have any injurioiis effect in provoking the animal to 

 resistance, rebellion, or caprice, the rest soon follows ; for the 

 rebellion or caprice of the animal constantly calls forth the vio- 

 lence, the injustice, and the cruelty of the groom. By these 

 means a casual trick is confirmed into a depraved habit, and a 

 playful, mischievous creature, transformed into a vicious, savage 

 devil. Still, while I attribute some of the extra amount of mis- 

 chief, wantonness and vice ^ in European horses — French and 

 Spanish horses I think even more vicious than the English — to 

 the effects of the system, I also think that, by some stccident of 

 blood, or climate, American horses are the more docile and 

 gentler by nature. I have observed the fact in race-horses, as 

 highly groomed, and as much pampered as any ; I have also 

 observed it among stallions, on exhibition, in the highest bloom, 

 at fairs, animals which no man in his senses in Europe would 

 think of approaching, under the like circumstances. 



And I must say, in conclusion, that I consider the general 

 horse of America superior, not in blood or in beauty, but decid- 

 edly in hardihood to do and to endure, in powers of travel, in 

 speed, in docility and in good temper, to any other race of 

 general horses in the known world. 



