20 EXACTING EXPERIMENTS. 



ing and making entirely gentle, horses that had defied for 

 years the greatest efforts of the best horse-breakers. It is 

 a matter of almost daily occurrence, in making experiments 

 before the class, to hitch up and drive in harness gently, 

 in from ten to twenty minutes, horses that either never had 

 been in harness, or had been so badly frightened, and 

 made to kick, as to be entirely unmanageable. The average 

 of such, are, in fact, so easily made gentle by my treatment, 

 that we take in hand before the class, daily, several of the 

 most vicious colts and horses that can be produced ; and 

 without exception, make the worst of them to drive in har- 

 ness without offering to kick, though the shafts strike the 

 quarters freely, showing the most perfect control. It is no 

 exaggeration, or egotism, to assert that such results are 

 beyond all comparison the greatest of the present or any 

 former age, in the art of training and reforming horses. 



I give the widest latitude for experiments; and it is sel- 

 dom a horse or colt is found of a character so vicious, that 

 I am not able to control and drive him gently in from ten 

 to twenty minutes. 



There is a point I would here call your attention to. It 

 is that horses that have the reputation of being bad, and 

 are really vicious and dangerous, are not always, by any 

 means, the most difficult to break or require the most time 

 and care. The most skill and the most effort will often be 

 demanded in the management of cases that are not known 

 to be bad or vicious. 



It is the cool, almost calculating fighter; the mare that 

 seems gentle in all places but one, and then she is, perhaps, 

 lightning itself in contesting the efforts ; perhaps it is the 

 balker, that will resist only at one point, at all others a 

 pleasant worker. While the average of these minor habits 

 yield readily to treatment, a matter, perhaps, of a few 

 minutes' work, you may find cases that will call for as 

 much or more real skill and effort to break up than is ne- 

 cessary to break horses regarded and known to be very bad. 

 If you find one of these give-and-take, treacherous cases, 

 you must make your point clear and sure ; make your fight 

 quick and decisive if you can, and always in the position 

 and place of resistance. 



