FOREWORD TO COLT-TRAINING 31 



horse's mouth, coaxing him to take hold of it ; in doing 

 this the groom succeeded in getting the horse to bite his 

 arm in play. One day the horse bit harder than usual. 

 This enraged the fool of a groom, who tied the horse to 

 a post and thrashed the poor animal unmercifully with 

 a whalebone-twisted cutting- whip until the unfortunate 

 brute squealed with pain. When the horse got up again 

 he turned savage, for self-preservation is the first law 

 of nature, and this poor horse, who was once kind and 

 gentle, turned into a vicious brute, thinking it was 

 correct to protect himself against such savage attacks 

 by man. 



Some people are of opinion that a horse knows when 

 you are afraid of him ; as a matter of fact, he knows 

 nothing about the thoughts of man. He only knows 

 what you can do with him, and if he finds out by 

 experience that he can handle you he will continue to 

 do so as long as he finds your inability to force his 

 submission ; as soon as he finds your ability to force 

 submission scientifically he will in consequence yield at 

 once to your commands. 



I have been rather nervous at times with bad horses 

 when they have kicked at my head with vicious intent, 

 but my system has overpowered them, and I have 

 made them submit. 



