Horse Taming. 107 



had spent at it, the enormous fame he had acquired, the 

 stupidity and ignorance about horses displayed by English- 

 men, and his own transcendent knowledge. We may see 

 from the foregoing remarks that Sample, like Rarey, aimed 

 only at rendering horses quiet — in other words taming them 

 — and made no attempt at forming their paces, rendering 

 them obedient to the ' aids,' and teaching them to jump. I 

 need hardly point out that this horse taming was only a 

 preliminary step, though a very useful one, in the breaking-in 

 of a horse. Knowledge of any such system of horse taming 

 was of value only to capable horsemen, who, after they had 

 made their animal amenable to discipline, would be able to 

 complete its education. 



Later on I learnt the circumstances which gave rise to 

 the fiasco at Hengler's, and which were as follows : After 

 travelling for several years in the horse taming line 

 through America, his native country, Sample went to 

 Australia to teach his system. He had great success in 

 those colonies ; as he was undeniably clever, and his 

 methods were new, and well adapted to the rough 

 and ready style of breaking which is employed in the 

 Antipodes. While he was making ' big ' money there, 

 someone suggested to him that he should go to England, 

 and told him that instead of making a hundred or two a 

 week in Australia, he could amass countless thousands 

 in England and especially in London, where, the tempter 

 said, nobody talked or dreamed of anything except horses, 

 and where he would be hailed as the great American bene- 

 factor of humanity. Yankee shrewdness not being proof 

 against flattery, Sample yielded to the glamour of the idea, 

 and departed to London to gather the harvest of gold and 

 fame which he thought was awaiting his arrival. He found 

 the great city a more difficult place to attack than he had 

 expected ; especially as the ways and views of its inhabitants 

 were new to him. Instead of finding himself, like in the 

 Colonies, in the midst of men who bred, owned, or at least 



