HIGH BREEDING HAS ITS INFLUENCE. 307 



our bidding, helps to induce him to do so again ; but 

 a carrot, or a lump of sugar when he has contracted 

 a taste for it, inswes his doing it. 



The majority of these stage and trick horses are of 

 foreign extraction, but bred in this country ; that is, 

 those exhibited here. From this, people may be led 

 into the supposition that they are more readily taught 

 than those of our o^\m breed ; but this is not at all 

 the case ; they are only selected for the sake of colour, 

 and because their action is calculated for stage effect. 

 It has not been found that intellect or aptitude to 

 learn preponderates more in favour of foreign horses 

 than our own : if anj^, the advantage is in favour of 

 ours, as being higher bred ; for, taking horses collec- 

 tively, the nearer the horse approaches to thorough- 

 bred the more readily he is to be taught. This 

 plainly shows that intimidation is not the chief agent 

 employed in teaching horses, for high courage is 

 generally concomitant with high breeding ; and no 

 Jiorse will so determinately resist improper liberties 

 taken with him as the thorongh-bred one ; and one of 

 the first principles with teachers is to avoid as much 

 as possible any resistance on the part of the animal 

 under tuition. 



Whether the thorough-bred horse is naturally 



endowed with more instinct than the coarser bred 



one, I am not prepared to say ; but, judging from 



what I have seen and heard, I should, so far as my 



opinion goes, say he decidedly is ; but, supposing he 



is not, there is a buoyancy of spirit and alertness 



about him that induce him to exercise his intellect, 



and notice circumstances and things much more than 



horses of more dull and sluggish dispositions. 



I have heard more than one surgeon say, that, in 



X 2 



