116 HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP 



riding schools, and in the hunting field, yes, and 

 racing too. This latter is hardly what I meant to 

 touch upon when starting this subject, but I 

 maintain with all conviction that never race was 

 won yet by punishment. A touch with the whip 

 at the right moment often saves the situation, but 

 punishment never. How many valuable horses are 

 ruined by the whip? How many thousands of 

 pounds are lost to owners every year by its means ? 

 And yet it goes on. It is in the hands of the 

 owners. It is their affair. If only they can be 

 got to realize it, it would stop instantly. So let 

 us hope that some who may read these few lines 

 will pass it on. 



When training horses we sometimes see, I am 

 sorry to say, a refusing horse, a perspiring rider, 

 and a battered whip. But has he succeeded in 

 getting the horse to jump? He has generally 

 to admit dismal failure. So what then has this 

 punishment done ? It has started spoiling the 

 horse's temper. One or two more like that, and the 

 horse is ruined for life, and no kind treatment will 

 ever bring back that attractive disposition which 

 nearly every horse who has been bred in the 

 United Kingdom possesses at birth. It is a sad 

 sight, and spoils many a day's enjoyment. But 

 the reason of it all is that false idea of mastery. 



I tried it once myself twenty-five years ago, when 

 I was very inexperienced. It failed utterly, and 

 I have regretted and remembered it ever since. 

 Some time ago I tried it on a horse who was in the 

 habit of refusing. His early training had been 



