Page:Horsemanship for Women.djvu/23

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AMATEUR HORSE-TRAINING.
9

horse, you may be assured that your horse is a great deal more afraid of you.

2. If you can only make clear to him what you wish him to do, he will try his best to do it, and will feel amply repaid for his efforts by a few kind words and caresses.

3. His narrow brain can entertain only one idea at once, and therefore only one problem, and that a simple one, must be given him at a time.

4. Once the problem is mastered, a very little practice makes the performance of the task instinctive, so that it will be performed at the proper signal, even against his own will, provided his mind is occupied with something else.

This course of lessons is prepared with these facts in view.

"But is horse-breaking a fitting amusement for young ladies?" a mother asks, and with an air indicating that to her, at least, a reply seems quite unnecessary. My dear madam, it is not horse-breaking we are talking of, but horse-training, which is a very different thing. There are, doubtless, many women who could break a colt if they chose, but it is an undertaking which we certainly do not recommend. In the "breaking to harness" of an untamed horse there is naturally included more or less of training, but the essential lesson to be taught is that it is useless to resist the will of man, for sooner or later the horse will test the question, and put