322 APPEALING TO THE SENSES. 



another trick often seen in the circle, and is one that 

 calls for no cruelty or severity in the teaching ; in 

 fact, severity would be useless, for it could in no way 

 contribute to forwarding the thing wanted. The whip 

 would of course deter a horse from stopping on seeing 

 the handkerchief on the ground ; but all the whips 

 that Swaine, Crowther, or Griffiths ever made coidd 

 not make him stoop his head to it. We will see if 

 kinder means would not more readily produce the 

 effect. 



We will spread a white cloth on the ground, and 

 on that put a quartern of oats : we then bring in the 

 horse, and lead him round the circle up to it. On 

 giving him a handful of the oats, he learns in a 

 moment that oats are there, and will soon put ]iis 

 head down to get at them. This he is encouraged to 

 do, and he consequently gets a few : he is then led 

 round the circle again, and, on coming to the hand- 

 kerchief, is, as before, stopped : again he picks up 

 some oats. By the time he has done this a few times, 

 he will want no stopping, but, on the contrary, would 

 have to be led or driven past the handkerchief on 

 coming up to it if we wished him to pass it. It is 

 thus seen there is no difficulty in teaching him to 

 stop from his walk on seeing the handkerchief. It 

 must therefore be equally apparent that with further 

 practice he will as readily stop from his trot, canter, 

 or full gallop. 



Now, though nothing like a whip or anything bor- 

 dering on punishment has been used in teaching the 

 horse to do this — we have supposed him to be quiet, 

 docile, and attentive — it may happen that he may be 

 the contrary, or, from high keep and exuberance of 

 spirits, heedless and inattentive ; so, instead of thinking 



