482 ART OF APPROACHING, SEIZING, AND TAMING 
a very heavy cart, far beyond his powers to move rapidly. A gallop 
over ploughed land is also frequently efficacious. A few such les- 
sons as these will reduce the most fiery horse to obedience, if he 
is only fiery. 
If the animal is actually dangerous, he may be enclosed between 
two strong bars, or fastened to the tail of a large waggon, in order 
to get him home, and the other methods of mastering him not 
being omitted. 
Castration in the male, and fecundation in the female, put an 
end to these excitements. 
In some countries, and particularly in Germany, they put these 
furious horses to the plough ; they also place them in a frame, 
and suspend them until their strength is completely exhausted. 
Other persons endeavour to reduce them to submission by priva- 
tions, spare diet, bleeding them to faintness, the employ of stupify- 
ing drugs; but all these things will, if carried too far, have a 
prejudicial effect upon the health of the animal, and perhaps tend 
to injure some important function : besides, their effect is only 
temporary ; it does not at all subdue a vicious animal, but, on the 
contrary, it endangers the lives of the persons who have the care 
of them. Mules have been known, after a lapse of two months, 
to avail themselves of some favourable opportunity of avenging 
themselves on their keepers for a certain degree of ill-treatment 
to which they have been subjected. Where animals obstinately 
resist all endeavours, however gently and gradually made, to tame 
them, and become more and more vicious, it is our duty to destroy 
them, as thus alone we can escape the responsibility towards 
society which we incur. A pistol-shot, or a transversal incision 
through the bifemoro-calcaneum (the tendon above the hams), are 
the most certain means of avoiding accidents. 
Wild horses are caught in snares, or with a lasso, and confined 
in enclosures, where they are spoken gently to, caressed, and fed 
on whatever seems most to tempt their appetites. By slow degrees 
they are habituated to closer confinement — a halter is put on, and 
they are tied to the manger while eating ; then by degrees the rest 
of the harness follows, and they are gradually brought into work. 
Where this method is patiently pursued, and privations and good 
treatment alternately applied as seem necessary, their subjugation 
is gradually effected ; and, lastly, when their strength is exhausted 
by hard labour and low diet, success is almost certain. 
The ass is seldom vicious or ferocious ; he is obstinate, and by 
no means tractable : but he rarely attacks or wounds any one, unless 
he has been previously ill-treated. 
The mule is neither so patient nor so manageable. It retains the 
memory of ill-treatment for a very long time, and requires great 
