The Head and Tail Method. 103 



lesson, and to enable him, so Sample declared, to tell a 

 horse's age with accuracy up to the age of thirty years, 

 supposing the animal lived so long, the pupil was presented 

 with a book, in which a short description of the system was 

 given. All that the writer of the five-pound-five cheque 

 further required was belief. 



Although, as my readers may guess, there was some 

 nonsense mixed up in this ' system,' it had many good points. 

 It was particularly useful to me ; because it supplied me 

 with one of the things which I most wanted, namely, know- 

 ledge of methods to make, in a very short time, a ' difficult' 

 horse quiet and obedient. I had, however, no belief in a 

 rule-of-thumb system. All I wanted was knowledge, and as 

 much of it as I could possibly acquire. 



The practical working of Sample's system was as follows : — 

 A cord was attached to the tail of the patient and fixed to 

 the headstall (which had been previously put on the animal), 

 at such a length that the only movement of which the horse 

 was then capable, was that of following its tail in a circle. 

 It required practice to regulate the length of this cord, so as 

 to obtain the proper amount of restraint. When thus tied 

 up, the animal was ' gentled ' over with a long pole, while, in 

 the event of its being nervous, it was induced to spin round 

 and round, until it perceived that it was easier to allow itself 

 to be touched all over, than to perform an involuntary waltz. 

 Cracking a whip close to and over it, rattling tin cans about 

 it, and applying other kinds of terrifying appliances, had the 

 effect of rendering it quiet if it had been previously wild. 

 This, like Rarey's plan of throwing a horse down, was 

 admirable with savage or excitable horses ; for it impressed 

 on the former their powerlessness to do wrong, and, on the 

 latter, the important fact that it was foolish for them to ' play 

 up' without being hurt. An appliance called 'the Indian 

 war bridle,' which had the same effect as a severe twitch, also 

 belonged to the system, as a preparatory means of control. 

 The third factor was driving the horse with a pair of long 



