EDITORS REMARKS.
Mr. Rarey says nothing about “longeing,” which is the first step of European and Eastern training. Perhaps he considers his plan of pulling up the leg to be sufficient; but be that as it may, we think it well to give the common sense of a much-abused practice.
Ignorant horse-breakers will tell you that they longe a colt to supple him. That is ridiculous nonsense. A colt unbroken will bend himself with most extraordinary flexibility. Look at a lot of two-years before starting for a run; observe the agility of their antics: or watch a colt scratching his head with his hind foot, and you will never believe that such animals can require suppling. But it is an easy way of teaching a horse simple acts of obedience—of getting him to go and stop at your orders: but in brutal hands more horses are spoiled and lamed by the longe than any other horse-breaking operation. A stupid fellow drags a horse’s head and shoulders into the circle with the cord, while his hind-quarters are driven out by the whip.
“A colt should be longed at a walk only, until he circles without force.
“He should never be compelled to canter in the longe, though he may be permitted to do it of himself.
“He must not be stopped by pulling the cord, which would pull him across, but by meeting him, so that he stops himself straight. A skilful person will, single-handed, longe, and, by heading him with the whip, change him without stopping, and longe him in the figure of 8. No man is fit to be trusted with such powerful implements as the longe-cord and whip who cannot do this.
“The snaffle may be added when he goes freely in the head-stall.”
A colt should never be buckled to the pillar reins by his bit, but by the head-stall; for if tightly buckled to the bit, he will bear heavily—even go to sleep: raw lip, which, when cured, becomes callous, is the result. Yet nothing is more common than to see colts standing for hours on the bit, with reins tightly buckled to the demi-jockey, under the ignorant notion of giving him a mouth, or setting up his head in the right place. The latter, if not done by nature, can only be done, if ever, by delicate, skilful hands.
A colt’s bit should be large and smooth snaffle, with players to keep his mouth moist.
Dick Christian liked a bit for young horses as thick as his thumb—we don’t know how thick that was—and four and a half inches between the cheeks; and there was no better judge than Dick.
The Germans use a wooden bit to make a horse’s mouth, and good judges think they are right, as it may not be so unpleasant as metal to begin with; but wood or iron, the bridle should be properly put on, a point often neglected, and a fertile source of restiveness. There is as much need to fit a bridle to the length of a horse’s head, as to buckle the girths of the saddle.
For conquering a vicious, biting horse, there is nothing equal to the large wooden gag-bit, which Mr. Rarey first exhibited in public on the zebra. A muzzle only prevents a horse from biting; a gag, properly used, cures; for when he finds he cannot bite, and that you caress him and rub his ears kindly with perfect confidence, he by degrees abandons this most dangerous vice. Stafford was driven in a wooden gag the first time. Colts inclined to crib-bite, should be dressed with one on.
Our woodcut is taken from the improved model produced by Mr. Stokey; no doubt Mr. Rarey took the idea of his gag-bit from the wooden gag, which has been in use among country farriers from time immemorial, to keep a horse’s mouth while they are performing the cruel and useless operation of firing for lampas.
[51-*] Is there such a work? I cannot find it in any English catalogue.—Editor.
CHAPTER VI.
Taming a colt or horse.—Rarey’s directions for strapping up and laying down detailed.—Explanations by Editor.—To approach a vicious horse with half door.—Cartwheel.—No. 1 strap applied.—No. 2 strap applied.—Woodcuts of.—How to hop about.—Knot up bridle.—Struggle described.—Lord B.’s improved No. 2 strap.—Not much danger.—How to steer a horse.—Laid down, how to gentle.—To mount, tied up.—Place and preparations for training described.
In this chapter I change the arrangement of the original work, and unite two sections which Mr. Rarey has divided, either because when he wrote them he was not aware of the importance of what is really the cardinal point, the mainstay, the foundation of his system, or because he wished to conceal it from the uninitiated. The Rarey system substitutes for severe longeing, for whipping and spurring, blinkers, physic, starving, the twitch, tying the tail down, sewing the ears together, putting shot in the ears, and all the cruelties hitherto resorted to for subduing high-spirited and vicious animals (and very often the high-spirited become, from injudicious treatment, the most vicious), a method of laying a horse down, tying up his limbs, and gagging, if necessary, his mouth, which makes him soon feel that man is his superior, and yet neither excites his terror or his hatred.
These two sections are to be found at pp. 48 and 51 and at pp. 59 and 60, orig. edit., under the titles of “How to drive a Horse that is very wild, and has any vicious Habits,” and “How to make a Horse lie down.” It is essential to unite these sections, because, if you put a well-bred horse in harness with his leg up, without first putting him down, it is ten to one but that he throws himself down violently, breaks the shafts of the vehicle, and his own knees.
The following are the sections verbatim, of which I shall afterwards give a paraphrase, with illustrative woodcuts:—
“Take up one fore-foot and bend his knee till his hoof is bottom upwards, and nearly touching his body; then slip a loop over his knee, and up until it comes above the pastern-joint, to keep it up, being careful to draw the loop together between the hoof and pastern-joint with a second strap of some kind to prevent the loop from slipping down and coming off. This will leave the horse standing on three legs; you can now handle him as you wish, for it is utterly impossible for him to kick in this position. There is something in this operation of taking up one foot, that conquers a horse quicker and better than anything else you can do to him. There is no process in the world equal to it to break a kicking horse, for several reasons. First, there is a principle of this kind in the nature of the horse; that by conquering one member, you conquer, to a great extent, the whole horse.
“You have perhaps seen men operate upon this principle, by sewing a horse’s ears together to prevent him from kicking. I once saw a plan given in a newspaper to make a bad horse stand to be shod, which was to fasten down one ear. There were no reasons given why you should do so; but I tried it several times, and thought that it had a good effect—though I would not recommend its use, especially stitching his ears together. The only benefit arising from this process is, that by disarranging his ears we draw his attention to them, and he is not so apt to resist the shoeing. By tying up one foot we operate on the same principle to a much better effect. When you first fasten up a horse’s foot, he will sometimes get very mad, and strike with his knee, and try every possible way to get it down; but he cannot do that, and will soon give up.
“This will conquer him better than anything you could do, and without any possible danger of hurting himself or you either, for you can tie up his foot and sit down and look at him until he gives up. When you find that he is conquered, go to him, let down his foot, rub his leg with your hand, caress him, and let him rest a little; then put it up again. Repeat this a few times, always putting up the same foot, and he will soon learn to travel on three legs, so that you can drive him some distance. As soon as he gets a little used to this way of travelling, put on your harness, and hitch him to a sulky. If he is the worst kicking horse that ever raised a foot, you need not be fearful of his doing any damage while he has one foot up, for he cannot kick, neither can he run fast enough to do any harm. And if he is the wildest horse that ever had harness on, and has run away every time he has been hitched, you can now hitch him in a sulky, and drive him as you please. If he wants to run, you can let him have the lines, and the whip too, with perfect safety, for he can go but a slow gait on three legs, and will soon be tired, and willing to stop; only hold him enough to guide him in the right direction, and he will soon be tired and willing to stop at the word. Thus you will effectually cure him at once of any further notion of running off. Kicking horses have always been the dread of everybody; you always hear men say, when they speak about a bad horse, ‘I don’t care what he does, so he don’t kick.’ This new method is an effectual cure for this worst of all habits. There are plenty of ways by which you can hitch a kicking horse, and force him to go, though he kicks all the time; but this doesn’t have any good effect towards breaking him, for we know that horses kick because they are afraid of what is behind them, and when they kick against it and it hurts them, they will only kick the harder; and this will hurt them still more and make them remember the scrape much longer, and make it still more difficult to persuade them to have any confidence in anything dragging behind them ever after.
“But by this new method you can harness them to a rattling sulky, plough, waggon, or anything else in its worst shape. They may be frightened at first, but cannot kick or do anything to hurt themselves, and will soon find that you do not intend to hurt them, and then they will not care anything more about it. You can then let down the leg and drive along gently without any further trouble. By this new process a bad kicking horse can be learned to go gentle in harness in a few hours’ time.”[70-*]