Equine Education 65 



gines, blasts, bonfires, cannons, and music. If he is 

 duly introduced to all these he will pay not the slight- 

 est heed to any of them. How he feared the bicycle 

 when it was first brought out ! yet to-day what raw 

 colt even looks at one? In the same way if he is 

 trained to stand tin cans, loose chains and straps, 

 and rattling wagon behind him, he never flinches at 

 breakdown or smashup; will pull the wagon by his 

 tail, and hold it back by his bare quarters if you ask 

 him to do it properly. Just show him that he won't 

 be hurt, and keep rehearsing him, and you may 

 accustom the wildest brute to any ridiculous feat or 

 freak your fancy conceives and his limitations admit. 

 As the ideal training-ground would provide a 

 medley of hideous sights and sounds, so the ideal 

 trainer would be dumb. The use of language dis- 

 tracts the animal's attention, and whatever is said 

 to him should be always brief, abrupt, and distinct ; 

 the tone, as nearly as possible, always the same. 

 He who never speaks to a horse does well ; he whose 

 vocabulary is absolutely limited to " whoa ! " and 

 '•' c'lk " is fortunate. To speak to a colt or a wild 



