HORSE-BREAKING 221 



attuned to the bit, and his limbs directed to their proper 

 action ; in short, h's whole frame must be prepared step 

 by step to endure the burden, with the least possible 

 strain, before I should think of getting on his back. I 

 would have him ready for work before putting him to 

 work. Some may say this is all gammon. Is it ? Why 

 then train a man to fight before putting him in the ring ? 

 Why teach him the proper use of his arms and legs before 

 he is called upon to use them ? Why teach him to stand 

 in an easy position, or to hit straight from the shoulder ? 

 Why gradually inure his bodily frame to imdergo fatigue 

 and punishment ? Why by diet and training harden his 

 muscles ? Put a big, burly young countryman, fed on 

 bacon and beer, into the roped arena to face a scientific, 

 well-trained pugilist of half his size, and he would be 

 knocked out of it in ten minutes. 



No animal, from a man to a dog, can do his work unless 

 properly trained and in good condition. Compare a 

 raw recruit with a disciplined soldier — both possess the 

 same bodily power, but it is the drill which gives to the 

 trained man his easy carriage and firm step. So it is 

 with the horse. Take a colt up from the grass field, — 

 what is he ? Full of fat and flesh ; his muscles flabby, 

 and his carcass more fit for the butcher's shop than a 

 riding-school. Suppose you get upon his back within 

 an hour of his being first brought into the stable ; 

 you then put, in addition to his own weight of body, 

 already too great perhaps for his legs, eight or ten stone 

 more, without the least preparation to carry this extra 

 burden. Now, if it requires at least two months to get 

 a hunter (which has been turned loose for the summer) 

 into tolerable condition, and it cannot be well done in 

 less time, if in so little — is it not reasonable to suppose 



