8 



EXTREMES AND MODIFICATIONS OF CHARACTER. 



and the majority of the great trotters, including some of 



the most enduring 

 roadsters, are of this 

 temperament. Yet it 

 is one of the seemingly 

 strange contradictions 

 of nature, which I have 

 noticed and found true 

 in the horse, that this 

 class, when managed 

 skilfully and kindly, 

 are among the very 

 best and safest horses 

 that can be found ; 

 making fine, reliable 

 workers, gentle even 

 for a woman to use : as 

 the sharpest and bright- 

 est boys, when exposed 

 to bad influence, be- 

 come, as it were, em- 

 bodiments of deviltry, 

 hard to prevent or over- 

 come. The Press horse 

 of Gowanda, N.Y., the 

 Omnibus horse of Buf- 



(No. 8.) THE HETTRICK HORSE. This head 

 was sketched by Mr. Beard for the writer 

 from life, and represents the most danger- 

 ous, striking, biting, kicking horse handled 

 by him in New York city. It was impossi- 

 ble, with safety, to touch with the hand 

 any part of this horse's body. After about 

 forty minutes' treatment this horse was 

 perfectly safe for any one to drive or 

 handle. The sketch was made five weeks 

 after treatment, when he was then driven 

 daily before a hack. 



falo, N.Y., the Malone 

 horse of Cleveland, O., Wild Pete of Petroleum Centre, 

 Pa., the Wilkins horse of New York City, and the Hillman 

 horse of Portland, Me., and in fact all the most vicious 

 horses that I have handled, have been of this tempera- 

 ment or a strong modification of it. The change it is 

 possible to make in the character of horses of this class, 

 when energetically and skilfully treated, is often really 

 wonderful. Wild Pete, a nine-year-old horse, as his name 

 implies, was so fearfully wild, savage, and unmanageable 

 as to be utterly worthless. After an hour's treatment by 

 me in a field (such a horse could not be broken in a barn), 

 he was perfectly gentle, safe even for a woman or child to 

 drive anywhere, and was used and let afterwards as a family 

 horse. I will refer to these and other horses more particu- 

 larly in another part of this chapter. 



