CHAPTER I. 



HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 



THERE exists, no doubt, many horses that deserve 

 the epithet vicious, in the proper signification of 

 the term ; they are, however, by no means so numerous 

 in proportion as many people suppose, and it is of great 

 practical importance that simple restiveness or disobe- 

 dience should not be confounded with the peculiar 

 temperament or disposition which constitutes a truly 

 vicious horse. Such an animal's temper can scarcely be 

 changed, although it may be dominated by force — as, 

 for instance, by Mr. Rarey's method, which, by the way, 

 was known to and practised by Major Balassa, of the 

 Austrian cavalry, forty years ago ; but the overawed 

 and subdued brute is not thereby rendered a useful and 

 docile servant, nor is any clue afforded us for overcom- 

 ing special forms of restiveness or insubordination we 

 may have to deal with : and so the horse-tamer, after 

 attracting an undue share of public attention for a 

 moment, finds himself in the end neglected and for- 

 gotten. 



There is, too, a danger in all these methods — namely, 

 the natural tendency they have to induce riders to rely 

 on forcible measures in all cases, the result of which is 

 but too frequently to convert a simply restive horse into 



199 



