HORSE-TAMING SEVENTY YEAHS AGO. 301 



to the huntsman. This miscalled system of horse- 

 taming will be imparted, therefore, to those who 

 already practise too many cruelties toAvards the 

 poor horse. Grooms and stable-boys will be ex- 

 perimenting on his devoted carcass, adding this 

 other to the many tricks already too pregnant with 

 punishment to this unfortunate animal, totally un- 

 necessary and uncalled for. 



I do not pretend to affirm that the system of 

 breaking young horses and subduing vicious ones 

 pursued by my father more than seventy years 

 ago, was an original one, concocted in his own 

 brain, although I am inclined to think that some 

 parts of it were known only to himself. His stud 

 of hunters in his younger days was composed en- 

 tirely of thorough-bred horses, some of which 

 were such bad tempers that they were obliged to 

 be subdued at first by a process similar, I con- 

 clude, to that adopted by Mr. Rarey — at least, at- 

 tended with the same results ; and they would 

 then lie down at the word of command to receive 

 him on their backs, on which he was accustomed 

 to perform in the open field, not in the stable or 

 any confined place, feats of horsemanship very 

 much resembling those performed at Astley s. 



But all the young horses bred by himself were 

 so instructed for the hunting-field that they would 



