Schooling Hunters 61 



him looking to you, believing in you, and having faith and 

 confidence in all you do and say. Wherein lies our 

 supremacy over these powerful animals ? Entirely in their 

 imagination. As long as you can keep their confidence, a 

 silken cord will lead them. Make them mind through 

 fear, and your only safety is in an iron chain. 



What if it does take a little time ? Think of the time it 

 takes to teach us men some of the simplest things! We 

 do not ask a boy to do fractions until he has had a lot of 

 schooling at easier work. We know that it would dis- 

 courage him and cause him to lose interest. The same 

 thing happens when we rush a colt on in his lessons. He 

 is confused and rattled, makes some big mistake, hurts him- 

 self, becomes frightened, hates the work, loses confidence, 

 thinks his trainer a fool, falls back on his own judgment, 

 gets a thrashing, fights back, gets another, gives up ex- 

 hausted, and finally drops to the level of a slave. With no 

 heart, no interest, he shirks all he can, and is sold or dies 

 without regret, all because we were in a hurry. And there 

 is no horse that more requires the slow, methodical training 

 than the colt destined to be a high-class hunter, because, 

 as I have already shown, he must possess so many high- 

 class qualifications. 



For jumping, if you are to begin with a weanling, let 

 him find a bar eighteen inches high obstructing his way 

 one he can with effort step over when he goes to and from 

 water, or a ditch to jump across when going or returning 

 from pasture one he can step down into at first. He will 

 soon take to jumping these obstacles as the easiest way of 

 getting over. Do not make any of these jumps anything 



