HOESES EAMPANT. 325 



part she does not want and to get at that which she 

 does. 



The horse lifts the handkerchief for the same 

 purpose, to get rid of that and get at the oats. To 

 let him find that by picking it up he gets a reward, 

 we take it from him, but give him a handful out of 

 it : we then lay it down ; he again picks it up ; so, 

 as he finds that by picking it up he each time gets 

 some of its contents, in the end the moment he sees 

 a white handkerchief, from the force of habit and 

 constant reward he picks it up though there are no 

 oats in it. As he will hold it for a moment till we 

 take it and give him his reward, he in the course of 

 time by long practice learns to hold it while he walks 

 up to us. But teaching a horse to hold anything is 

 a most tedious thing to do, and requires great practice 

 and unwearying patience in the teacher to effect, for 

 we can hardly make him understand he does wrong 

 in dropping it : we can only make him find he gets 

 rewarded for holding it till he comes up to us ; so 

 here we have only immediate reward to ofi"er as an 

 inducement, but we cannot resort to immediate 

 punishment on the other hand. 



Teaching horses to stand still with their fore feet 

 on anything, like the lion and unicorn in the Queen's 

 arms, is effected by making them stand with the 

 fore parts more and more elevated each lesson till 

 they are brought to the required height, and they 

 are taught to remain so by finding that so long as 

 they do they are supplied with what they like, and 

 (when perfect) corrected if they do not. In proof 

 that it is reward and not punishment that teaches these 

 horses to stand still in the truly extraordinary ele- 

 vated situations in which they are often placed, and 



Y 3 



