If your horse, instead of being wild, seems to be of a stubborn or
_mulish_ disposition; if he lays back his ears as you approach him, or
turns his heels to kick you, he has not that regard or fear of man that he
should have, to enable you to handle him quickly and easily; and it might
be well to give him a few sharp cuts with the whip, about the legs, pretty
close to the body. It will crack keen as it plies around his legs, and the
crack of the whip will affect him as much as the stroke; besides one sharp
cut about his legs will affect him more than two or three over his back,
the skin on the inner part of his legs or about his flank being thinner,
more tender than on his back. But do not whip him much, just enough to
scare him, it is not because we want to hurt the horse that we whip him,
we only do it to scare that bad disposition out of him. But whatever you
do, do quickly, sharply and with a good deal of fire, but always without
anger. If you are going to scare him at all you must do it at once. Never
go into a pitch battle with your horse, and whip him until he is mad and
will fight you; you had better not touch him at all, for you will
establish, instead of fear and regard, feelings of resentment, hatred and
ill-will. It will do him no good but an injury, to strike a blow, unless
you can scare him; but if you succeed in scaring him, you can whip him
without making him mad; for fear and anger never exist together in the
horse, and as soon as one is visible, you will find that the other has
disappeared. As soon as you have frightened him so that he will stand up
straight and pay some attention to you, approach him again and caress him
a good deal more than you whipped him, then you will excite the two
controlling passions of his nature, love and fear, and then he will fear
and love you too, and as soon as he learns what to do will quickly obey.