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 keenly as
[Illustration: HORSE WITH MR. RAREY’S EXTRA STRAP ON.]
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
pitched 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 love and fear you too, and, as soon as he learns what
to do, will obey quickly.