BREAKING. 149 



maintain his ' independence,' that although he will allow almost 

 any quadruped, even wolves and lions, to approach within a certain 

 distance, yet the moment he sees a man, though on horseback, he 

 instinctively turns his tail towards him, and, when followed, gal- 

 lops away. 



" If, consequently, by the triumph of reason over instinct, he be 

 caught, saddled, and if all of a sudden, to his vast astonishment, 

 he finds sitting astride his back, with a cigar in his mouth, the very 

 human being he has always been avoiding, his first and almost only 

 feeling is that of fear, and, accordingly, if he be retained by the 

 bridle, instantaneously, by a series of jumps on all four legs, he 

 makes impromptu his first hurried, untaught, unpractised effort to 

 dislocate a rider. But if, instead of being as it were invited to 

 perform these unsophisticated antics, he bo allowed, or rather by 

 whip and severe spurs, he propelled to do what he most ardently 

 desires, namely, run away, his power of resistance is over, and his 

 subjection inevitable. For at the top of his speed, just as when 

 swimming, a horse can neither rear, kick, nor plunge, and accord- 

 ingly at his best pace he proceeds on his sure road to ruin, until 

 not only all his wind is pumped out of him, but after that, until 

 twisted hide-thong and sharp iron have converted his terror of 

 man into an ardent desire to be obedient to his will. In fact, like 

 a small nation that has unsuccessfully been contending against a 

 great one, he wishes to put an end to the horrors of war, and to 

 sue for the blessings of peace. 



" 2. If a domestic horse that has never been broken in be sud- 

 denly saddled and mounted, the rider has greater difficulties to 

 encounter than those just described ; for the animal is not only 

 gifted by nature with all the propensities of the wild horse to re- 

 ject man, but, from being better fed, he has greater strength to 

 indulge in them ; besides which he enjoys the immense advantage 

 of being in a civilized, or, in plainer terms, an enclosed country. 

 Accordingly, instead of being forced to run away, his rider is par- 

 ticularly afraid lest he should do so, simply because he knows that 

 the remedy which would cure the wild horse would probably kill 

 him. In fact, the difference to the rider between an open and an 

 enclosed field of battle is exactly that which a naval officer feels in 

 scudding in a gale of wind out of sight of land, and in being- 

 caught among sand-banks and rocks in a narrow channel. 



" 3. Of all descriptions of horses, wild and tame, by far the most 

 difficult to ride is that young British thorough-bred colt of two or 

 three years old that has been regularly ' broken in ' by himself, 

 without giving the slightest warning, to jump away sideways, spin 

 round, and at the same moment kick off his rider. This feat is a 

 beautiful and well arranged combination of nature and of art. Like 

 the pugilistic champion of England — Tom Saycrs — he is a pro- 

 13* 



