562 
ON THE EDUCATION OF THE HORSE. 
heart, on the part of the breaker. The coolest and best-natured 
rider will always succeed best. Horses have, as we before 
stated, very retentive memories, and seldom forget whatever un¬ 
ruly tricks or habits they acquire from being improperly handled 
, in the breaking. Children are extremely alert in imitating the 
actions, the gestures, and the manners of those with whom they 
associate. They are dexterous in perceiving ridiculous figures 
and representations, which they imitate with ease and propriety. 
By imitation also young animals model their actions entirely upon 
those of the old. We have known many young horses become 
inveterate cribbiters in a single night, merely by imitating a 
cribbiting companion. Wind-sucking is another ill habit, ac¬ 
quired by imitation. Slipping the collar or halter, pawing and 
scraping the litter, rolling in the stall, tearing off the clothing, 
are all habits which, when once acquired, are never or very sel¬ 
dom removed, and shew how soon 
“ III customs by degrees to habits rise." 
Kicking in the stable, and biting, are, perhaps, the most dan¬ 
gerous habits that horses acquire. 
Some horses are difficult to shoe: this in great measure de¬ 
pends upon the “ breaking and all such habits as restlessness 
and difficulty in saddling, mounting, or dismounting (which is 
particularly observable in horses of warm temperaments), may 
be prevented by kind and gentle management. Old habits 
and propensities are rarely ever forgotten. The crippled hunter 
pricks up his ears at the music of the hounds; and the old 
charger retains, as long as he lives, a remembrance of his past 
services. 
“ And when the drum beats briskly on the gale. 
The war-worn courser charges at the sound, 
And with young vigour wheels the pasture ground." 
“About the period of the first American war # , the horses of a 
heavy dragoon regiment, during the summer months, were sent 
to grass at Haverscroft, a village between Barnsly and Pontefract, 
in the West Riding of the county of York. One hot summer 
day, a tremendous thunder storm occurring, these horses, occu¬ 
pying a small enclosure, were observed to collect in a body, and 
afterwards *form in a line,’ with as much regularity and exact¬ 
ness as when exercised on a field day; and whilst the ‘ thunder 
rolled its awful burden to the wind,’ and the lightning glared on 
every side, maintained their position during the continuance of 
the storm ; exhibiting a most astonishing proof of animal sagacity, 
and one of the most magnificent spectacles that the mind can 
well conceive.” 
* Brown’s Anecdotes of Horses. 
