How to Render Horses Obedient. 203 



ties, is very pressing. In such cases there is no other 

 remedy than to commence the handhng de novo^ which 

 is a very troublesome and not always successful opera- 

 tion, especially in the case of aged horses, for such 

 resist, and very frequently resent, every attempt to gain 

 that perfect command over their movements without 

 which a cure is hopeless, unless the greatest judgment 

 and patience be brought to bear on them. It was to 

 English horses of this class, when taken to the Conti- 

 nent, that reference was made in the introduction to 

 this little book. 



On the other hand, the Continental or riding-school 

 system, aiming, as it does, at complete mastery over 

 the propelling power — that is, the horse's hind legs — 

 will, if hurried or injudiciously employed, very possi- 

 bly tend directly to call forth the spirit of resistance and 

 insubordination ; for it is precisely this control over 

 their hind legs that horses dislike and seek to escape 

 from with the greatest pertinacity and cunning, and it 

 is only by almost imperceptible degrees that it can be 

 attained when desirable. For the correction of insub- 

 ordination it is, however, not only desirable, but indis- 

 pensable ; and it is therefore, generally speaking, a 

 comparatively much easier task to bring back truants 

 originally handled in this manner to habits of obedience, 

 than those that have been accustomed in their youth to 

 the English laissez faire method. 



It would be very easy, perhaps more to the taste of a 

 certain class of readers, to lay down certain rules for 

 this or that form of restiveness, and say, do this if a 

 horse rears, and that if he rubs your knees against a 

 wall or insists on going home when you want to have 

 a ride, but we have no faith in ready cut-and-dry 

 receipts, and abhor all empiricism most thoroughly ; 

 moreover, there is plenty of it to be found, by those 

 who prefer it, in most books on this subject. The real 



