PREVENTING AND OVERCOMING FEAR. 55 



followed me to the next town the day following. That 

 was many years ago, and was one of the many little epi- 

 sodes of trial to which I have been subjected in my long 

 experience, but which were necessary to give me whatever 

 of success I am now able to exhibit. The Petroleum 

 horse, Wild Pete, referred to on page 14, was moved in 

 his viciousness almost wholly by fear : he was so wild and 

 afraid of any thing touching him, that with one leg tied 

 up, and with the control of the war-bridle, a means of 

 the greatest possible power upon the head, when I touched 

 the hind quarters lightly with the lash of a long whip he 

 was so frightened that he sprang into the air, and got 

 away from me, running fully a half a mile, at every jump 

 kicking in the most fearful manner ; yet one lesson of an 

 hour completely broke up all this fear, and left the horse 

 as gentle, safe, and manageable for any one to drive and 

 use as could be desired. 



The Press horse, broken by me in Buffalo, N.Y., re- 

 ferred to on p. 12, was moved wholly by fear. Any thing 

 like the shafts of a wagon was an object of terror to him. 

 A year before this horse was treated by me, four of the 

 best horsemen of Gowanda, N.Y., who had taken lessons 

 in that place a short time before, of a travelling horse- 

 tamer, so called, determined to apply the treatment to 

 the Press horse. They clubbed together to get the neces- 

 sary rigging used by this man, which was, by the way, quite 

 complicated and expensive, but indispensable. They 

 led the horse a mile out of town, worked hard half a day 

 upon him, all ending in the horse getting away, and going 

 flying into town with ropes and rigging hanging about him. 

 It was a disastrous failure ; and I need not add that horse- 

 taming was at a discount, and a term of derision in that 

 town. When, the next morning, after being subjected to 

 treatment by me, I drove this horse in the street (three of 

 these men Mr. Vosburg, a liveryman and a really good 

 horseman, being one of them were stopping at Brown's 

 Hotel, it being race-week in Buffalo ; and all the horsemen 

 in that section of country were in the city), they were 

 more than astonished. They desired me to unhitch the 

 horse, rattle the shafts, all of which I did, even driving 

 him without breeching, the horse acting as gentle and 



