220 HANDLING AND BREAKING. 



own species. Still we do want a better word 

 perhaps to differentiate our own methods 

 from those of the professional, who has to 

 break his charges to ride and drive in the 

 shortest possible space of time. The Prench 

 expression manege would do ; but this again 

 is iised to denote something else — the higher 

 branches of equine education, as practised 

 in the haute ecole. 



While commending this " mutual con- 

 fidence " doctrine to the amateur breaker, 

 and also to riders and drivers generally, I 

 would strongly deprecate any playing with 

 the colt. Playing with an animal means 

 as a rule teasing it, in a benevolent sense of 

 the term. Dogs enter into this and seem 

 to understand it ; but they are perhaps the 

 only animals who quite enjoy it. All young 

 creatures, however, love play, pure and 

 simple ; and the colt will readily learn a 

 game, and you may have some fun together 

 Avith impunity. But it is a dangerous game. 



