The three fundamental principles of the Rarey Theory.--Heads of the
Rarey Lectures.--Editor's paraphrase.--That any horse may be taught
docility.--That a horse should be so handled and tied as to feel
inferior to man.--That a horse should be allowed to see, smell, and
feel all fearful objects.--Key note of the Rarey system.
FIRST.--That he is so constituted by nature that he will not offer
resistance to any demand made of him which he fully comprehends, if made
in a way consistent with the laws of his nature.
SECOND.--That he has no consciousness of his strength beyond his
experience, and can be handled according to our will without force.
THIRD.--That we can, in compliance with the laws of his nature, by which
he examines all things new to him, take any object, however frightful,
around, over, or on him, that does not inflict pain--without causing him
to fear.
To take these assertions in order, I will first give you some of the
reasons why I think he is naturally obedient, and will not offer
resistance to anything fully comprehended. The horse, though possessed
of some faculties superior to man's, being deficient in reasoning
powers, has no knowledge of right or wrong, of free will and independent
government, and knows not of any imposition practised upon him, however
unreasonable these impositions may be. Consequently, he cannot come to
any decision as to what he should or should not do, because he has not
the reasoning faculties of man to argue the justice of the thing
demanded of him. If he had, taking into consideration his superior
strength, he would be useless to man as a servant. Give him _mind_ in
proportion to his strength, and he will demand of us the green fields
for his inheritance, where he will roam at leisure, denying the right of
servitude at all. God has wisely formed his nature so that it can be
operated upon by the knowledge of man according to the dictates of his
will; and he might well be termed an unconscious, submissive servant.
This truth we can see verified in every day's experience by the abuses
practised upon him. Any one who chooses to be so cruel can mount the
noble steed and run him till he drops with fatigue, or, as is often the
case with the more spirited, falls dead beneath his rider. If he had the
power to reason, would he not rear and pitch his rider, rather than
suffer him to run him to death? Or would he condescend to carry at all
the vain impostor, who, with but equal intellect, was trying to impose
on his equal rights and equally independent spirit? But, happily for us,
he has no consciousness of imposition, no thought of disobedience except
by impulse caused by the violation of the law of his nature.
Consequently, when disobedient, it is the fault of man.
Then, we can but come to the conclusion that, if a horse is not taken in
a way at variance with the laws of his nature, he will do anything that
he fully comprehends, without making any offer of resistance.
Second--The fact of the horse being unconscious of the amount of his
strength can be proven to the satisfaction of any one. For instance,
such remarks as these are common, and perhaps familiar to your
recollection. One person says to another, "If that wild horse there was
conscious of the amount of his strength, his owner would have no
business with him in that vehicle: such light reins and harness, too--if
he knew, he could snap them asunder in a minute, and be as free as the
air we breathe;" and, "That horse yonder, that is pawing and fretting to
follow the company that is fast leaving him--if he knew his strength, he
would not remain long fastened to that hitching post so much against his
will, by a strap that would no more resist his powerful weight and
strength than a cotton thread would bind a strong man." Yet these facts,
made common by every-day occurrence, are not thought of as anything
wonderful. Like the ignorant man who looks at the different phases of
the moon, you look at these things as he looks at her different changes,
without troubling your mind with the question, "Why are these things
so?" What would be the condition of the world if all our minds lay
dormant? If men did not think, reason, and act, our undisturbed,
slumbering intellects would not excel the imbecility of the brute; we
should live in chaos, hardly aware of our existence. And yet, with all
our activity of mind, we daily pass by unobserved that which would be
wonderful if philosophized and reasoned upon; and with the same
inconsistency wonder at that which a little consideration, reason, and
philosophy, would make but a simple affair.
Third--He will allow any object, however frightful in appearance, to
come around, over, or on him, that does not inflict pain.
We know, from a natural course of reasoning, that there has never been
an effect without a cause; and we infer from this that there can be no
action, either in animate or inanimate matter, without there first being
some cause to produce it. And from this self-evident fact we know that
there is some cause for every impulse or movement of either mind or
matter, and that this law governs every action or movement of the animal
kingdom. Then, according to this theory, there must be some cause before
fear can exist; and if fear exists from the effect of imagination, and
not from the infliction of real pain, it can be removed by complying
with those laws of nature by which the horse examines an object, and
determines upon its innocence or harm.
A log or stump by the road-side may be, in the imagination of the horse,
some great beast about to pounce upon him; but after you take him up to
it, and let him stand by it a little while, and touch it with his nose,
and go through his process of examination, he will not care anything
more about it. And the same principle and process will have the same
effect with any other object, however frightful in appearance, in which
there is no harm. Take a boy that has been frightened by a false face,
or any other object that he could not comprehend at once; but let him
take that face or object in his hands and examine it, and he will not
care anything more about it. This is a demonstration of the same
principle.
With this introduction to the principles of my theory, I shall next
attempt to teach you how to put it into practice; and whatever
instructions may follow, you can rely on as having been proven
practically by my own experiments. And knowing, from experience, just
what obstacles I have met with in handling bad horses, I shall try to
anticipate them for you, and assist you in surmounting them, by
commencing with the first steps to be taken with the colt, and
accompanying you through the whole task of breaking.
These three principles have been enlarged upon and explained in a fuller
and more familiar manner by Mr. Rarey in his Lectures, of which the
following are the heads.
"Principles on which horses should be treated and educated--not by fear
or force--By an intelligent application of skill with firmness and
patience--How to approach a colt--How to halter--How teach to lead in
twenty minutes--How to subdue and cause to lie down in fifteen
minutes--How to tame and cure fear and nervousness--How to saddle and
bridle--How to accustom to be mounted and ridden--How to accustom to a
drum--to an umbrella--to a lady's habit, or any other object, in a few
minutes--How to harness a horse for the first time--How to drive a horse
unbroken to harness, and make go steady, single or double, in a couple
of hours--How to make any horse stand still until called--How to make a
horse follow his owner."
* * * * *
In plain language, Mr. Rarey means, that--
1st. That any horse may be taught to do anything that a horse can do if
taught in a proper manner.
2nd. That a horse is not conscious of his own strength until he has
resisted and conquered a man, and that by taking advantage of man's
reasoning powers a horse can be handled in such a manner that he shall
not find out his strength.
3rd. That by enabling a horse to examine every object with which we
desire to make him familiar, with the organs naturally used for that
purpose, viz. _seeing_, _smelling_, and _feeling_, you may take any
object around, over, and on him that does not actually hurt him.
Thus, for example, the objects which affright horses are the feel of
saddles, riding-habits, harness, and wheeled carriages; the sight of
umbrellas and flags; loaded waggons, troops, or a crowd; the sound of
wheels, of drums, of musketry. There are thousands of horses that by
degrees learn to bear all these things; others, under our old imperfect
system, never improve, and continue nervous or vicious to the end of
their lives. Every year good sound horses are drafted from the cavalry,
or from hunters' barbs and carriage-horses, into omnibuses and Hansom
cabs, because they cannot be made to bear the sound of drums and
firearms, or will not submit to be shod, and be safe and steady in
crowded cities, or at covert side. Nothing is more common than to hear
that such a horse would be invaluable if he would go in harness, or
carry a lady, or that a racehorse of great swiftness is almost valueless
because his temper is so bad, or his nervousness in a crowd so great
that he cannot be depended on to start or to run his best.
All these varieties of nervous and vicious animals are deteriorated in
value, because they have not been educated to confide in and implicitly
obey man.
The whole object of the Rarey system is, to give the horse full
confidence in his rider, to make him obedient to his voice and gestures,
and to impress the animal with the belief that he could not successfully
resist him.
Lord Pembroke, in his treatise on Horsemanship, says, "His hand is the
best whose indications are so clear that his horse cannot mistake them,
_and whose gentleness and fearlessness_ alike induce obedience to them."
"The noblest animal," says Colonel Greenwood, "will obey such a rider;
and it is ever the noblest, most intelligent horses, that rebel the
most. In riding a colt or a restive horse we should never forget that he
has the right to resist, and that as far as he can judge we have not the
right to insist. The great thing in horsemanship is to get the horse to
be your party, not to obey only, but to obey willingly. For this reason
the lessons cannot be begun too early, or be too progressive."
The key-note to the Rarey system is to be found in the opening sentence
of his early lectures in England: "Man has reason in addition to his
senses. A horse judges everything by SEEING, SMELLING, and FEELING." It
must be the business of every one who undertakes to train colts that
they shall _see_, _smell_, and _feel_ everything that they are to wear
or to bear.
[Illustration: HALTER OR BRIDLE FOR COLTS.]