286 HUMANE HORSE-TRAINING 



in the sunset of his days, at which time he is apt to 

 exaggerate and distort the real facts. 



I should be pleased to demonstrate these methods to 

 any reader who is sufficiently interested, and I hope that 

 the publication of this book will lead to many appoint- 

 ments for the purpose of enabling me to satisfy the 

 sceptical. 



Let me say in conclusion, it is my firm conviction 

 that patient understanding, personality and intelligent 

 kindness are the real factors in any kind of effective 

 animal training. Animals possess a special kind of 

 mind and, of course, a unique kind of consciousness 

 which is no less human, in degree, than our own. It 

 is only by the careful study and perception of this par- 

 ticular kind of mind that we can hope to get the best 

 out of our dumb friends. It is for the benefit of the 

 horse-owner who, through ignorance and stupidity, resorts 

 to cruelty that I have written this book. There is a 

 better, more humane, and certainly a much more profitable 

 method than barbaric cruelty — ^which is, after all, a 

 poor index of our superior mentalities. It is to be hoped 

 that the rising generation, both of men and of horses, 

 will be ignorant of cruelty in any degree ; that inhumane 

 methods are obsolete there can be no possible doubt — 

 and I have done my best to prove it. 



