324 THE H0B8E. 



BEEAKING THE HOESE. 



LEARNING TO RIDE, PRACTICAL HORSEMANSHIP. 



1 NOW come to a very important part of my subject, to one very 

 different from any on which I have yet touched, but at the same 

 time, one on which I hold most definite opinions, and one, touch- 

 ing which it appears to me that there is vast room for improve- 

 ment, in the United States generally ; I mean the breaking of 

 horses, and the riding of men. 



In the first place, I must say it, whether it give pleasure to 

 my readers or the reverse, one rarely if ever sees a properly and 

 thoroughly-broke horse, in America, and still more rarely a 

 thorough horseman. 



In the United States, generally, a horse is called thoroughly- 

 broke, when he will allow himself to be mounted and ridden, 

 or put in harness and driven, without rearing, j)lunging, kicking, 

 throwing his rider over his head, or smashing the vehicle to 

 pieces with his heels — when he will neither run away, nor stand 

 still, in spite of his owner's will ; when, in a word, he is sub- 

 dued, gentle, and free from vice, and when he has acquired a 

 certain facility of going along, at the regular paces of walk, trot, 

 canter or gallop, with some indistinct sort of reference to the 

 wishes of the person who directs him — but without the slightest 

 reference to his mode of carrying himself, whether with his nose 

 in the air, or thrust obstinately out before him, in a straight line 

 with his body, like a run-away pig ; or, naturally and gracefully 

 in its place, with the neck curved, the line of the face perpen- 

 dicular to the surface of the earth, the chin in toward the chest, 



