98 HINTS TO horsemen; or, 



if lie gets into a dry ditch well filled with strong 

 thorns and brambles, he will be careful not to get 

 in a similar predicament again ; but force him into 

 water, you increase the evil by increasing his fears ; 

 he will not attempt to keep himself out of it by clear- 

 ing it, but will resolutely refuse to go near it. Some- 

 thing in the way of improvement may be effected by 

 great patience and command of temper, in habituat- 

 ing the horse to jump very small ditches with water 

 in them, and then gently putting him at very small 

 streams; but a water-jumper he never will be, so long 

 as he is a horse. 



Some persons may be surprised at my making so 

 definite and bold an assertion : I will give my rea- 

 sons for so doing. There is no feeling so difficult, if 

 not impossible, to eradicate in the horse as fear ; vice 

 may, in many cases, be cowed, so as not to shew 

 itself in an inconvenient or dangerous degree. The 

 unwillingness to exert himself on the part of a lazy 

 horse may be stimulated by the fear of, or the appli- 

 cation of, the whip, or spur, or even voice ; this wiU, 

 however, only have a temporary efi'ect, for he will 



