Foreword 



and many others of lesser note. In the cases 

 of all of them the spectacular subjugation of 

 horses in a few minutes was the leading motif — 

 with an eye to gate money. In a number of 

 instances I have taken the trouble to follow 

 up the results of these Hghtning cures, and 

 have found, in some cases, that after a few 

 days the horse had become much worse than 

 he was before. I was present when a pro- 

 fessional tamer came out to a British Depend- 

 ency with a great flourish of trumpets, and 

 collected all the hard subjects in a certain 

 city for demonstration of the value of his 

 treatment. These included some artillery 

 horses, with bad characters for stubbornness 

 and evil temper. They came upon the ground, 

 giving all sorts of trouble, with half a dozen 

 men hanging on to each. His system con- 

 sisted of strapping them up, pulling them 

 down by main force, beating drums and 

 kerosene tins over their heads, firing off guns 

 and the like. When they were stood up again, 

 they were trembling and completely dazed, 

 and one man could, without difficulty, lead 

 each about in a sort of dull, mechanical manner. 

 This result was claimed as a great triumph for 

 the system, but ten days later one of the artillery 

 horses killed his groom, and the others 

 developed such appalling ferocity that within 

 a month all were shot. Other rogue horses 

 in the same city, treated in the same way, 



3 



