MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[CHAP. 



horses perform will be of use here. A few 

 examples will suffice to show the cruel methods 

 that are sometimes adopted. Any fool can make 

 a horse do certain acts by the means mentioned 

 below, so there is no credit due either to the man 

 or to the horse. In many cases the man de- 

 serves to be treated in a similar manner. My 

 motto in training horses, or in doing anything 

 else with them, is " Never do to your horse what 

 you would not have done to yourself." If all 

 horse-owners went on these lines good horse- 

 men would be more common. These perform- 

 ances, which require no cleverness on the part 

 of the trainer, and no study by the horse, but 

 which astonish and amuse the public, because 

 they are ignorant of the means employed, are 

 not so commonly witnessed as they have been 

 in the past ; this is due to the work of the 

 S.P.C.A. and other humane organisations and to 

 the police ; it is also due to the horse being better 

 understood by certain trainers, who are there- 

 fore able to educate the horse and thus make him 

 perform the same things in an intelligent manner 

 without ill-using him. 



The cruel methods adopted are such as these : 

 A noble rider comes home in distress at meeting 

 misfortune, and his horse is supposed to share 

 his master's grief. When offered oats he puts 

 his muzzle into the basket, but withdraws it 

 with a negative shake of the head, much to the 

 astonishment of the audience, who are not aware 

 that the poor horse has run his muzzle against 

 a number of pins in the bottom of the basket. 



A horse who loses his master in one of the 

 acts refuses to eat during the rest of the per- 

 formance. He is supposed to be mourning, but 

 in reality the food offered him is soaked in a 

 drug that possesses a disagreeable odour. Similar 

 means are used by the mountebank to cause his 

 horse to go through its daily performance. Too 

 often the mountebank is a charlatan, because far 

 greater skill than that which he possesses is re- 

 quired to train a horse. He usually poses as 

 superior to school riders and has the gift of talk- 

 ing much ; he thus makes the audience believe 

 what he says. He is clever at one thing, and 

 that is in deceiving the public. 



92. We will now consider briefly the pro- 

 perly educated performing horse, known as " the 

 horse at liberty." In the past, during many 

 centuries, a certain number of horse-trainers 

 existed who were able to educate the horse to an 

 advanced degree, and until about two centuries 

 ago these trainers were considered as magicians 

 or sorcerers. Stories are told of these trainers 

 being burnt alive or otherwise punished, on ac- 

 count of the public becoming afraid of their 

 apparent power over the horse. 



A Neapolitan, named Pietro, had a little horse 

 called Mauraco, whose naturally good disposi- 

 tion he turned to account; this little animal 

 would perform some very clever tricks that his 



master taught him. After some years when 

 passing through Aries he caused such astonish- 

 ment that he was taken for a sorcerer. Pietro 

 and Mauraco were both burnt alive in the public 

 market-place. A horse mentioned by Shake- 

 speare, called Morocco, that was owned by a 

 trainer named Bankes, was also burnt because 

 of superstition. The principles of training laid 

 down in the earlier portion of this chapter should 

 be carefully adhered to in training a horse for 

 public performances, i.e. to perform at liberty in 

 the circus and, finally, perhaps, on the open 

 stage. In teaching a horse the numerous little 

 tricks we must watch him very carefully to see 

 whether he really understands our wishes, 

 whether he is becoming wearied, and whether 

 he is physically able to do what we ask of him. 

 When he refuses to obey, our difficulty lies in 

 being able to discover whether he does so from 

 obstinacy, from ill-temper, or from ignorance of 

 our wishes ; in the last case, of course, it would 

 be our own fault. An enclosed circus is the best 

 place in which to teach a " horse at liberty " ; 

 the man is near to the horse, and can easily cor- 

 rect his faults. The horse should have had 

 several weeks with the cavesson previous to this, 

 in order that the trainer may gain his confidence 

 and love, and to teach the horse obedience. Once 

 the horse has become thus thoroughly obedient 

 he can be taken into the circus ring. He will 

 now be free of the cavesson and lunge, but the 

 circus boards will keep him in the circle ; the 

 radius of this circle should be the same length 

 as the lunging-rein. We keep him near the 

 boards by the same means as we kept the lung- 

 ing-rein taut. 



Later he will be taught to turn in and to come 

 up to the trainer ; at first the lunging-rein and 

 the voice will be used for this, which can after- 

 wards be replaced by a thick black thread that 

 he will not easily be able to see. He will be 

 given a tit-bit upon coming up to the trainer. 

 Thus he will associate our voice-sound with 

 turning in towards us and receiving a piece of 

 sugar. After he has been taught a few little 

 tricks like the above, he may be made to trot, 

 walk and canter with a roller and side-reins on. 

 Each time he is made to trot, the word " Trot " 

 must be said slowly and the whip raised to a 

 certain position. Another sound and position of 

 the whip will be used when he is made to canter. 

 The whip will be held in the hand away from 

 the direction in which the horse is moving, so 

 that he cannot see it very readily. He will thus 

 associate these sounds and movements of the 

 trainer's hand with the various actions, and after 

 a while will perform these acts merely upon the 

 sound being used with the movement, and later 

 by the movement alone, or by the sound alone. 

 He can thus be taught many other acts, such as 

 halting, turning right-about, left-about, etc. 

 Great patience is required and incessant kind 



