SHYING. 433 



hunting field, with all its noise and turmoil, she was as 

 steady as possible, and the violent shying, which was 

 her way of showing off, seemed to be quite forgotten. 

 She would carry my son to his school, a distance of 

 about five miles, and bring him home without making 

 any attempt to shy with the child, but if an adult 

 person rode her on the same route, she would play 

 up as usual. I can only infer from this experience 

 that, as I have already said, many horses possess a 

 certain sense of honour. As shying is the most 

 common vice among horses, we may consider it first. 



SHYING. 



I have called this habit or trick of becoming violently 

 startled without adequate cause a vice, because in old 

 horses who frequently shy with the object of unseating 

 a rider thus suddenly taken unawares, it certainly is a 

 very bad vice, and one for which the only cure is good 

 horsemanship — that is to say, a seat sufficiently secure 

 in the saddle to enable us to treat such conduct with 

 indifference. If we attach importance to it by losing 

 our temper and hitting an artful offender of this kind, 

 punishment may cause an unpleasant exhibition of 

 temper on his part, besides letting him see that his 

 object has been accomplished. In the case of young 

 and nervous horses, shying arises from timidity and 

 not from vice, and therefore it behoves us to exhibit 

 patience and kindness in inspiring confidence in such 

 animals and assuring them that there is no reason for 

 terror. The best means of doing this is to ride on and 



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