104 THE HORSE 



what you have been carefully watching for, and at 

 the very instant that he shows this partial yield- 

 ing to your will, release the pressure on his mouth. 

 Now repeat it; he will respond a little quicker 

 this time and you cannot be too careful to release 

 the pressure the instant he complies. In this 

 way, in a surprisingly short time, you will be able 

 to back him any distance you please. 



Now the great difference between this method 

 and the methods (if so they can be called) that 

 are generally practised is that, in this, you have 

 shown the colt just what you wanted him to do; 

 while in the lesson, as it is usually attempted to 

 be taught, the colt can hardly suppose otherwise 

 than that his trainer is trying to drag him back- 

 ward by the reins — a thing that he naturally re- 

 sents and that the trainer is manifestly unable to 

 do. That in spite of such crude methods the ma- 

 jority of horses do learn to back is proof of their 

 high intelligence, for they have learned what has 

 not been taught them in any sane or rational way. 



And this brings me to a matter of which I have 

 often thought — the fact that despite the crudity 

 and, too often, the barbarity of the methods em- 

 ployed in training, the great majority of our colts 

 grow up into good, useful horses, just as the ma- 

 jority of our boys and girls, despite the many 

 mistakes in their training, grow up into good, 



