one. I always marked down the person who made such a remark as not being
thoroughly in earnest, or not knowing the subject he was discussing. I
do not know how much harder it is to drive two horses than one. That is
I cannot express the difference mathematically. But there is a good
deal. Any reasonably strong man can prevent one horse from getting away
with him. Few can prevent a thoroughly frightened team if they once get
off. The thing is not to let them get off. Not to permit this requires
that he shall control two animals, for when one of a pair gets
frightened he quickly communicates his fear to his mate. When the panic
is serious then serious trouble is likely to ensue. With a runaway horse
or a runaway pair the circumstances of the moment must control. If the
road is clear and the driver can keep the horse straight all may go
well; but horses nearly always choose to get frightened when the
conditions are nearly the opposite of this. Then the circumstances of
the moment must guide the driver. If he keeps his head cool and can
prevent collisions, he will probably come out safely. But the best of
them have been run away with. This comes sooner or later to every man
who uses horses constantly. Eternal vigilance will prevent most all of
the accidents that might happen; but human nature is fallible and horses
are very uncertain. Carelessness in the driver, however, is responsible
for ninety and nine of every hundred driving accidents that happen. The
flying automobile, in recent years, has been responsible for a great
many. I must say, however, that I never met but once with anything but
the greatest consideration from automobilists that I have encountered
when driving. The discourteous one proved to be a dentist, and the
mission of dentists in the world is, I believe, to give people pain.
Every driver should know when his horses are properly harnessed and
hitched to the vehicle. And he should never fail to look over the whole
“turn out” in every detail to see that all is secure and each part in
proper adjustment to every other part. The horse show authorities have
formulated rules as to what is proper for one vehicle and another. The
experts are veritable martinets and attach as much importance to a strap
here and a buckle there as the unlucky King of Prussia, who did battle
with Napoleon, attached to one row or two rows of buttons on a soldier’s
coat. Intelligence, however, can find its way without much regard to
these fine points. But it is never safe to trust to grooms and stablemen
even though they may really know more about it than the driver himself.
The driver is the master, and he should make the inspection even though
it be only a formal one—he should assume a virtue though he has it not.
Inspections of the work of stablemen do not go amiss unless the unlucky
master should take to finding mares’ nests. Two or three such
discoveries will hurt discipline amazingly.
There is now a good deal of four-in-hand driving in America. It is only
now pleasure driving, and quite different from that of the coaching days
of our grandfathers’ time. This is an art which a man may be able to
pick up himself. But the safest and quickest course is to take
instruction from a professional or from a friend, if so amiable a friend
can be found. It is, of course, more difficult to drive four than two
horses. But this can be learned by any cool-headed man who has the good
fortune to be a horseman to start out with. Not having that gift he
would do well to let it alone. Some of the most accomplished
four-in-hand drivers about New York are women, which shows that it is
not main strength that is effective, but skill and practice. Practice
and intelligence combined will overcome most all of the difficulties. By
practice I do not mean an hour a day for a couple of weeks, but six
hours a day for two or three years; and by intelligence I mean the
instructed knowledge which enables a driver to know the reason for each
thing that is done.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
TRAINING VS. BREAKING
As has been frequently remarked before in this volume, the horse is not
a very intelligent animal. Nor has he any of that natural affection and
fidelity that is so remarkable in the dog. This being the case—and it is
so no matter what the sentimentalists who know nothing about the subject
may say—the training of a young horse is a thing requiring much patient
intelligence on the part of the person who undertakes the job. But this
patience is rewarded if the young horse have qualities that are worthy
of development. I fancy that seven horses out of ten in the United
States are broken before their training begins. This means, in my
opinion, that a large percentage of a horse’s value is deliberately
thrown away in the very beginning of his career of usefulness. A horse
_broken_ is a horse half _spoiled_. The “Broncho Buster” is the typical
horse breaker. Those who have not been on the frontier have seen the
Broncho Buster’s methods in the Wild West circuses. A young horse or a
wild horse is saddled and bridled. A Rough Rider mounts and stays on the
back of the young thing until the animal is conquered and subdued
through fear and fatigue. This brutal method of treating young horses
used to be universal in America. That so much of it should still be done
is not complimentary to the intelligence and kindliness of American
horse owners. It is about on a par with the treatment that weak-minded
persons received a century or so ago. They were beaten and maltreated
and kept in order by cruelty and harshness—ruled, indeed, by the fear of
those who should have treated them with the most patient kindness. When
the spirit is taken out of a horse by his early handling, we can never
hope to develop his small intelligence very far, or to guide his
instincts in the right direction. While a horse’s intelligence is of a
low order, he has a fine memory. His fear being aroused in the
beginning, he remains afraid, and is controlled by his fear alone—his
fear of being hurt. This always seemed to me a cowardly way of acting,
for the horse is one of the most timid of all animals. To beat a horse
is about as noble as to beat a child.
The breeders of good horses are pretty generally giving up the rough
methods of breaking. Their horses are too valuable to be trifled with in
this way. There are some horses that are naturally vicious. With them
the gentle method will not accomplish the desired result. They have to
be conquered in another way. When this is the case, I much prefer the
Rarey method. Rarey so fashioned a harness that he could cast a horse
the moment that a horse disobeyed. After a horse has been thrown a few
times he usually comes to the conclusion that obedience is the safer
plan. There is nothing cruel in the Rarey method and with bad horses it
is much to be preferred to the brutal breaking style. The horse is not
hurt, he is merely surprised at the result of his own waywardness.
The Arabs handle their horses from the time they are foaled, so that
they are from the beginning accustomed to men, women and children and
all the other things common to a human habitation. That is the way all
young horses should be treated. To be sure this involves a good deal of
work and many think that it does not pay, so they turn their colts out
and let them get two or three years old before anything is done with
them. This is as wise as to let a boy run wild and uninstructed until a
year or so before he is bidden to go forth and earn his own living. When
a colt is accustomed to persons and not afraid of being touched or led,
only patience and intelligence is required to complete his education
without any fight or contest whatever.
Before the colt is a year old it should be accustomed to the cavesson
while running in a paddock, and when a year old it should be practised
on the lunge, a rein of fifteen feet long attached to the nose-piece of
the cavesson. This is a head-collar with a metal nose-band, upon the
front and each side of which are rings. To the front ring the leather
lunge is fastened and from the side rings straps will be buckled to a
surcingle or girth at such lengths as will prevent the colt from
extending the face much beyond the perpendicular. The colt should then
be led about, stopping and starting, time and time again until it has
some comprehension of the word of command. The feet should be lifted so
that the colt realizes that the trainer has no intention to do him harm.
After good terms have been established the colt should be practised on
the lunge, the trainer standing in the center of a circle, and letting
the colt walk first and then trot slowly around the circumference of the
circle—first to the right, then to the left. These short lessons should
be given every day. Soon a colt enjoys the exercise, evidently thinking
it play. If it be a driving horse that is being trained, harness should
soon be added so that the colt will not be afraid of it, and also a
light bridle with a snaffle-bit or, better still, a leather bit. If it
be a saddle-horse that is being trained, the lunging and bitting should
continue until the colt is passed two years old before he is saddled or
mounted.
Suppose we take the saddle-horse first. Two-year-old colts are often
trained by light weight riders. At three their serious education is
continued, and at four they are given their accomplishments. The colt,
after being practised on the lunge, should be taught somewhat the
meaning and the purpose of the bit before he is mounted. Patience and
gentleness to the end that fear may be banished will enable a trainer to
get a colt into such an acquiescent condition that when the rider
finally gets into the saddle the colt accepts the innovation with
nothing exceeding a mild surprise. The saddle should be used in the
lunge exercise several times before a man mounts. Some recommend that a
weight, such as a bag of meal, be tied into the saddle towards the end
of the lunge exercises so that the colt will get used to weight on the
back. This is not a bad idea. Before the rider mounts the first time,
the stirrups should be pulled down and pressure be put upon them so that
the colt may feel the weight of the saddle. When the foot of the rider
is first put into the stirrup he should raise himself very gently, the
left hand being in the mane of the colt. After bearing all his weight a
few seconds in the stirrup he should return to the ground without taking
his seat in the saddle. This he should repeat several times, the number
of times depending upon how the colt acts. At any rate, this
half-mounting should be continued until the colt is no longer disturbed
by it. Then the rider may take his seat in the saddle. This should be
done as quietly as possible. He should sit in the saddle a few minutes
and then dismount. The mounting and dismounting should continue until
the colt is accustomed to it. This will not be long if everything be
done easily, slowly and gently. An awkward man has no business in trying
to train a saddle-horse. A flop into the saddle would, naturally,
frighten a colt and defeat the purpose in view. When the colt has become
used to a rider in the saddle the rider should close his legs against
the sides of the colt, draw a slight tension on the reins, and induce
the colt to go forward in a walk. There should be nothing but the walk
in the first few lessons. In them, however, the colt should be taught
the meaning of the bit so that he could be guided in whatever direction
the rider wishes. In nine times out of ten a colt that has been treated
as I have described will be quiet and do what is asked of him without
any excitement. If the colt does get excited then the whole work will
have to be done over and over, with more patience and more gentleness,
until the colt acquiesces. It is most important that all these first
steps be taken quite slowly, otherwise the colt will get hot and
excited, and then may come a fight which is the thing most to be
avoided. I can see a rough rider turning up a scornful nose at these
admonitions. Very well! Be scornful as much as you choose, I am not
writing about the training of a broncho, but of a horse fit for a
gentleman to ride.
After the mounted colt goes quietly in the walk, then he should be
trotted gently, and if the rider is a light weight, cantered, too. But
as a two-year-old work should be very light—play, indeed. At three years
old the colt may be confirmed in his gaits, but not worked a great deal
harder than at two. At four years old the colt is ready for the
finishing touches and the beginning of his life work. But he is not
nearly up to the hard work of which he should be capable between six and
sixteen.
Trainers of colts for driving hitch them up when they are yearlings, and
drive them a little to a low cart built with long shafts and running out
behind. Before being hitched up, however, he is harnessed and driven
around with a pair of long reins, being guided by the driver to one way
and another, and being stopped and started at the word of command. When
the colt is harnessed to the cart a strong kicking strap should be used.
A few lessons a week driven in such a cart will work wonders so that
when the colt is two years old there will be no difficulty in driving
him in an ordinary road cart. In driving a colt the same precautions
should be used as in training a colt for the saddle—it should not be
frightened or treated roughly.
It is probably more important to accustom a young driving horse than a
riding horse to the sights and sounds that are likely to be encountered
on the road. Here, too, patience and gentle firmness are amply rewarded.
Whenever I see a driver thrashing a young horse to compel him to go by
an automobile or a trolley car or some other strange and fearsome thing,
I have a desire to get the whip and apply it to the driver. Such
treatment of a horse is not only cruel, but it is utterly foolish. The
horse is frightened at what he sees. He is afraid that in some way it
will hurt him. And why should he not be? These devil wagons are
frightful enough in appearance to scare a less timid animal than a
horse. There is only one course to pursue. Teach the horse that the
automobile or other frightful machine will not hurt him. Do this, not
with the whip, not with shouts and execrations, but by leading the horse
up to the offending machine until he realizes that it is not some
monster of destruction. Patience and sense will prevent almost any horse
from acquiring bad and dangerous habits of shying and bolting. Curing a
horse of established habits is quite another and a different thing. It
is like reforming the dissolute or regenerating the depraved. The horse,
however, is not blameworthy. These bad habits are always the result of
foolishness on the part of some man. The sensible course is not to
permit a horse to acquire bad habits. This is a thousand times easier
than curing them. Patient firmness and gentle insistence will prevent
bad habits in all save those that are fools. A fool horse is too
worthless to bother about.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CONFORMATION AND ACTION
In the horse shows an exhibitor, except in the Thoroughbred classes, is
not required to furnish the pedigrees of his horses. The judges,
therefore, decide entirely on conformation and action. These two things
are what make or unmake the excellence of the individual animal. A
well-formed horse is apt to have good action. Sometimes this is not so,
just as sometimes a woman may have beauty of form and feature and lack
animation, vivacity, and that infinite variety and sympathy which
recently we have accustomed ourselves to call temperament. Good
conformation in a horse, however, is the advantage which conduces to
good action. When action and conformation supplement, adjust, and
confirm each the other, we have what may be called an approach to the
ideal horse. I have never seen the ideal horse; but pretty close to it.
I have owned a few that were very satisfactory, but never one that was
entirely so. Still I have hope. I suspect that when one realizes his
ideal in anything, life loses some of its zest. The pursuit, the
seeking, the longing for the unattained—these are the things that make
life so interesting, so absorbing. If I had the horse I have long had in
my mind I should be glad, no doubt. But I might be sorry, too. There is
one saving fact, however. We change our ideals as we get more experience
and further knowledge. I have changed my opinions often about horses,
since I first became interested in them. While writing the last chapter
of this book I confess that I have changed some of my opinions during
the two or three months that I have been engaged in the composition. I
have learned some things that I did not know before; I have parted with
some prejudices which I ought never to have entertained. So it was
inevitable that I should modify my views. If, therefore, I should ever
obtain my ideal in horse-flesh I might awaken a few weeks later to find
that I really wanted something just a little different. I seek the
ideal, therefore, without fear of achieving it and meanwhile I have lots
of fun with horses that are not more than half what they ought to be.
The oldest writer on horses was Xenophon. He says: “The neck should not
be thrown out from the chest like a boar’s, but like a cock’s, should
rise straight up to the poll, and be slim at the bend, while the head,
though bony, should have but a small jaw. The neck would then protect
the rider, and the eye see what lies before the feet.”
Xenophon is the oldest writer on the subject. Mr. Price Collier is the
latest and in many regards the best, because he not only knows how to
write, but knows what he is writing about. Here is what he says about
the proportions of a well-formed horse:
“One cannot go to buy a horse with a tape-measure, but certain
proportions are well enough to keep in mind. The length of the head of a
well-proportioned horse is almost equal to the distance; (1) from the
top of the withers to the point of the shoulder; (2) from the lowest
point of the back to the abdomen; (3) from the point of the stifle to
the point of the hock; (4) from the point of the hock to the lower level
of the hoof; (5) from the shoulder blades to the point of the haunch.
Two and a half times the length of the head gives: (1) the height of the
withers and the height of the croup above the ground, and (2) very
nearly the length from the point of the shoulder to the extreme of the
buttock.”
The tape-measure test is all very well, but if a man does not have an
eye for a horse he will never be able to select a good one by
mathematics. And an eye for a horse is a singular endowment. I have
known men of proved intellectuality quite incapable of learning about
horses. Also I have known men who, in the ordinary affairs of life were
very fools but who knew good horses by a kind of instinct. The man with
an eye for a horse takes the whole animal in at a glance; his minute
examination, in nine cases out of ten only confirms his instant
judgment. When I am buying a horse I do not need to hesitate very long.
I have inspected and bought as many as twenty in a day, giving not more
than fifteen or twenty minutes to each horse. Yet these purchases in the
main have been satisfactory. No one of them, however, was my ideal.
In a general way, all horses should have certain points. Therefore
general rules apply in all the types, from the Pony to the Percheron.
Every horse should have (1) a bony head and small ears; (2) medium-sized
eyes, neither protruding nor sunken, and without an excess of white in
the pupil; (3) the forehead should be broad; (4) the face should be
straight and neither concave nor convex; (5) the neck should be small
and lean, its length regulated by the size of the head and the weight of
the shoulders, the head being so joined to the neck that the neck seems
to control the head instead of the reverse; (6) the shoulders should be
oblique or sloping; (7) the back should be short; (8) the ribs should be
well rounded, definitely separated and full of length; (9) the legs
should be flat and lean, with knees wide from side to side and flat in
front, the upper bone of the leg being long and muscular in proportion
to the lower or the common bone; (10) the feet should be moderately
large; (11) the pasterns should be long rather than short, but, better
still, neither long nor short; (12) the hair should be short and fine.
I might have added another point, making thirteen in all, but for luck I
stop at the dozen, feeling sure that if any of my readers gets a horse
with the good points noted he will have a treasure beyond the lot of
most men and maybe far beyond his deserts.
A well-formed horse ought to have good action. This does not always
follow. But good conformation without good action is a kind of
disappointing fraud. The best action is that which is natural to the
horse. We expect this in families and in types. But training can modify
the action of a horse, indeed, change it entirely as when a pacer is
converted into a trotter. With pacers, however, I am not concerned as I
presume that this book is written for gentlemen.
There can be no good action which is not straight. In the walk, the trot
and the gallop a horse must move his feet and legs in parallel lines.
The horse that does that naturally can be taught the other things that
may not come to him by nature—high stepping, for instance. When a horse
moves always without paddling or any other lateral motion, he is a very
fit subject for cultivation. He can be taught to go daintily and
gracefully as our grandmothers walked through the _minuet de la couer_.
Throwing the feet far out in front or lunging, as it is called, is a
very ugly trick and can be remedied in the shoeing, I am told. I believe
this to be true, but I have never tried it. A horse with this
inclination always seemed to me badly bred—Hambletonian, for
instance—and I have not recently bothered with such. Paddling also can
often be corrected by shoeing. General rules cannot be laid down as to
these things. Each horse has his individuality. He must be so studied.
When an owner brings general knowledge and acute intelligence to this
study he can determine in a little while what is best to be done in each
case. In the great majority of cases the best plan is to sell the horse
that seems unpromising, but as no horse is ever entirely satisfactory
some of them must be retained and educated by training, a training
dominated by gentleness, courage, firmness and patience—but most of all
patience.
THE END
INDEX
ABDUL AZEEZ, SULTAN OF TURKEY, 31
ABD-EL-KADER, 18, 23
ABDALLAH, 116, 128
ABRAHAM, 18, 19
ABDALLAH, XV, 175
ABDUL HAMID II, 146
ACTION AND CONFORMATION, 272
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT, 111
ALASKER TURK, 25
ALEXANDER, ROBERT A., 54, 55
ALIX, 132
ALEXANDER’S ABDALLAH, 171
AMAZONIA, 116
AMERICAN STUD BOOK, 41
ANDREW JACKSON, 86, 104, 136
ANCIENT SCULPTURES, 6, 7
ANDERSON, EDWARD L., 6, 235, 250
ANDALUSIAN (JACK), 198
ARMENIA, 6, 20
ARAB AND BARB, vi, vii, 14, 15
ARISTIDES, 70
ARION, 134
ASIA, 6
AUTOMOBILES AND ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS, iv
AXTELL, 134
BARBARY, 13, 14
BARRS, 183, 184
BASSETT, HARRY, 66, 67
BATTELL, COL. JOSEPH, 80, 85, 107
BERBER BARBS, 13
BELLFOUNDER, (IMPORTED), 117, 119
BELLE MEAD FARM, 70
BEND OR, 70
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 10
BELMONT, AUGUST, 55
BEACON COURSE (HOBOKEN), 105
BETSEY HARRISON, 152, 153
BEN BRUSH, 74
BLACK HAWK, 88, 90, 106
BLUE GRASS, 148, 221
BLUNT, WILFRID, 33
BLACK DOUGLAS, 112, 139
BONHEUR, ROSA, 179
BOSTON BLUE, 131
BOSTON, 56
BONNER, ROBERT, 133
BONNIE SCOTLAND, 69
BOX-STALLS, 224
BOGUS (LOOMIS’S) SON OF LAME BOGUS BY ELLIS’S BOGUS, SON OF IMP. TOM
BOGUS, 107
BOURBON BELLE, 71
BRITISH HORSE, 8
BREEDING ON FARMS, iv
BRONCHO BUSTERS, 238, 263
BRAMBLE, 69
BRUTUS MORGAN, 85
BREAKING AND TRAINING, 262
BRUCE, MR., 142
BREEDING TO A TYPE, v
BUFFALO BILL, 238
BULRUSH MORGAN, 86, 92, 93
BULLE ROCK, 40
BULL CALF, 131
BUYING A HORSE, 210
BYERLY TURK, 25, 40, 80
CARMON, 170, 174, 175
CANADA, 9
CASSIUS M. CLAY, 139
CAVESSON, 265
CALASH, 10
CATALAN, JACK, 190, 198
CARLYLE, W. L., 176
CABELL’S LEXINGTON, 166
CHANGING THE LEAD, 249
CHARLES KENT MARE, 117, 119, 121
CIVIL WAR, viii, 208, 236
CIRCUS TRICKS, 236
CLAY-KISMET, 145, 177
CLAY-ARABIAN, v, 13
CLEVELAND BAY, 8, 182
CLYDESDALE, v, 178, 182
CLAY, HENRY, 190
CONTINUITY IN BREEDING, vii
CORTEZ, 8
COLUMBUS, 8
CONEY ISLAND JOCKEY CLUB, 70
COLONIAL ERA IN NEW ENGLAND, 10
COLLIER, MR. PRICE, 256, 274
COMMISSIONS TO COACHMEN AND GROOMS, 218
CONFORMATION AND ACTION, 272
CONTINENTAL RIDERS, 237
CONESTOGA, 120
COLEMAN’S EUREKA, 166
CRUSADERS, 24
CRESCEUS, 132, 175
CUTTING A DASH, 258
CUB MARE, 41
DARLEY ARABIAN, 16, 25, 27, 36, 40, 80, 101, 168
DANIEL LAMBERT, 90
DAVY CROCKETT, 166
DAUMAS, GENERAL, 18, 22
DEXTER, 94, 132, 139, 140
DEALERS, 216, 217
DE LANCEY, COL., 41, 80
DENMARK, v, 13, 27, 69, 129, 130, 152, 153, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160,
161, 163, 166
DE LESSEPS, COUNT FERDINAND, 21, 22
DIOMED, 12, 42, 43, 44
DOMINO, 72, 73
DOBBINS, 73
DOBLE, BUDD, 94
DORSEY, L. L., 92
DOMESTICATION OF HORSE, 5
DRACO, 93
DRIVING, 251
DUKE OF MAGENTA, 70
DUKE OF MONTROSE, 70
DUTCHMAN, 104, 105, 132, 133
ECLIPSE (AMERICAN), 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 100
ECLIPSE, 29
EDWIN FORREST, 132
EGYPT, 6
ELDERLY RIDERS, 247
ELECTIONEER, 139
EMPEROR OF NORFOLK, 71
ENGLISH RIDERS, 237, 238, 239
EOCENE HORSE, 3
EOLUS, 70
EQUITATION, 234
ETHAN ALLAN, 89, 93, 94, 95, 111, 175
EVOLUTION OF HORSE, 4
FALKLAND ISLAND HORSES, 5
FALLS AND TUMBLES, 248
FARM HORSES, iv
FAIRFAX, JOHN, 189
FASHION, 56
FAIR RACHEL, 41
FALSETTO, 70
FIRENZI, 71
FEARNAUGHT, 93
FEEDING AND WATERING, 231, 232