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soon settles. I always used to jeer at them and tell 

 them not to be Idiots, for I am a firm believer in the 

 power of the human voice, and think that a horse very 

 soon knows every change of tone. Most people know 

 the story of the great Assheton Smith lending a good 

 hunter to a friend, and to his disgust seeing the horse 

 being pulled up as they approached some tall timber. 

 One shout from the voice he knew sent the horse bound- 

 ing over, in total disregard of his nervous rider's 

 wishes. 



"The Druid", too, in "Scott and Sebright", is very 

 interesting on this point. "It is a pretty general 

 opinion", he writes, "among trainers that horses can- 

 not tell one person from another except by the voice, 

 and that in this respect they are like fairy 'Fine 

 Ear'. Ellerdale, for instance, took no notice of Tom 

 Dawson when he went to see her at Admiral Harcourt's 

 some four or five years after she had left his stable; 

 but the moment he said "Coachman", she wheeled round 

 and struck at him quite viciously. Mentor was quite 

 as odd this way, and he proved pretty well that the 

 dislike arises from the association of the voice with 

 the orders at exercise". The paragraph closes with 

 the remark: "Meretrix became so fidgety from hearing 

 Pobert's voice at exercise that he was obliged to employ 

 a code of stick and hand signals to the boy . 



I used the voice a great deal, and often^sung or 

 whistled to a young one when he was in an irritable or 

 nervous state. It seems to soothe them, and reminds 

 me of a story against myself, which would go to prove 

 that horses are not severe critics where the voice is 

 concerned. I was riding home with a friend after a 

 big hunt with the Devon and Somerset staghounds. We 

 had a twenty-mile ride, and his horse was very beat, 

 and we had to go slowly. Conversation had run down 

 and I asked him, to pass the time away, if he would 

 like a song or a recitation. He rashly chose a song, 

 and although almost as soon as I began he hurriedly 

 said he had changed his mind and would like a recitation, 

 I carried on and finished my song. After a silence 

 my companion in a thoughtful and worried tone remarked 

 that he feared his horse was more beat than he had 

 imagined. I foolishly asked him why? 'Well , he said, 



