Nic drew rein sharply, and his horse stopped and shook its head, and champed the bit impatiently.
“Don’t check your horse like that, boy!”
“I only pulled the reins, father.”
“Yes, as if his mouth were made of wood. You would soon spoil him, and make him hard-mouthed, if you jerked the bit about in that fashion. A horse like this is extremely sensitive. You only need just feel his mouth with the rein, and he will stop at the slightest additional pressure, just sufficiently to make him understand what you want. Well, why are you making a face like that?”
“I shall never learn all this,” cried Nic; “I’m too stupid.”
“And you have ground away at algebra and Euclid! What nonsense! Come, be more ready to take a right view of things. Horses are extremely intelligent animals, and love their masters if properly treated. They are wilful at times, and then have to be punished; but I never strike or spur my horse without good reason. Now look here, Nic: this is not to show off, but to let you see what can be done with the animal, which is one of man’s most valuable friends out in these wilds. Now watch!”
The doctor threw the reins on the horse’s neck.
“I want to go to the left.”
To Nic’s astonishment the horse bore away to the left, and his own followed suit.
“Now I want to go to the right.” The horse turned in that direction.