274 RIDING VICIOUS HORSES. 



upon jerks the reins, digs the spurs into his sides, hits him 

 with the whip, and calls out, " Do you think I stole you ? " or 

 some other expression which he has the authority of his 

 groom for considering to be en regie. An animal thus treated 

 will naturally — for a horse has a marvellously retentive 

 memory — associate in his mind the idea of punishment 

 with any object or occurrence that will remind him of the 

 previous unpleasantness. Or a timid rider, when expecting 

 some sight or noise which he may think will alarm his mount, 

 may try in anticipation to strengthen the courage of them 

 both by clutching at the reins and saying " Steady lad," 

 " Whoa-ho boy," or some other soothing expression. By 

 acting thus, he will make the horse believe that something 

 very dreadful is going to happen, and will cause him to be 

 thoroughly on the qui vive against danger. When he has 

 been worked up into this state by his rider, he will of course 

 be only too ready to express his fear in a form which will 

 probably be very disagreeable to the man on his back. I 

 recollect one morning when I was in the Bengal Staff Corps, 

 that finding I could not ride my charger, as there was some- 

 thing wrong with him, I thought it would be fun to go to 

 parade on a very good-looking selling plater I owned. He did 

 not quite like the look of the sepoys at first, but calmed down 

 very soon. The order was given to fire a feu de joie, which I 

 may tell my non-military readers, tries a horse's steadiness as 

 much as any noise I have ever heard. I saw the other officers 

 drawing up their reins and going through their usual " Whoa- 

 ho boy " performance. As I knew that my lately enlisted 

 mount had never heard ^ feu de joie, I tried the experiment of 

 sitting still and leaving the reins slack. At the word of 

 command, the rattle of musketry came down the front rank, 

 and then up the rear rank, causing all the old chargers to 

 whisk round and to try to "jump out of their skins;" but 

 neither the plater nor I took the slightest notice of the row. 



