As to the costume of the trainer, I recommend a close cap, a stout pair of boots, short trousers or breeches of stout tweed or corduroy, a short jacket with pockets outside, one to hold the straps and gloves, the other a few pieces of carrot to reward the pupil. A pocket-handkerchief should be handy to wipe your perspiring brow. A trainer should not be without a knife and a piece of string, for emergencies. Spare straps, bridles, a surcingle, a long whalebone whip, and a saddle, should be hung up outside the training inclosure, where they can be handed, when required, to the operator as quickly and with as little delay and fuss as possible. A sort of dumb-waiter, with hooks instead of trays, could be contrived for a man who worked alone.
If a lady determines to become a horse-trainer, she had better adopt a Bloomer costume, without any stiff petticoats, as long robes would be sure to bring her to grief. To hold the long strap No. 2, it is necessary to wear a stout glove, which will be all the more useful if the tips of the fingers are cut off at the first joint, so as to make it a sort of mitten.
[70-*] I should not recommend this plan with a well-bred horse without first laying him down, as he would be likely to throw himself down.—Editor.
[73-*] All these straps may be obtained from Mr. Stokey, saddler, North Street, Little Moorfields, who supplied Mr. Rarey, and has patterns of the improvements by Lord B—— and Colonel R——.
CHAPTER VII.
The Drum.—The Umbrella.—Riding-habit.—How to bit a colt.—How to saddle.—To mount.—To ride.—To break.—To harness.—To make a horse follow and stand without holding.—Baucher’s plan.—Nolan’s plan.
It is an excellent practice to accustom all horses to strange sounds and sights, and of very great importance to young horses which are to be ridden or driven in large towns, or used as chargers. Although some horses are very much more timid and nervous than others, the very worst can be very much improved by acting on the first principles laid down in the introduction to this book—that is, by proving that the strange sights and sounds will do them no harm.
When a railway is first opened, the sheep, the cattle, and especially the horses, grazing in the neighbouring fields, are terribly alarmed at the sight of the swift, dark, moving trains, and the terrible snorting and hissing of the steam-engines. They start away—they gallop in circles—and when they stop, gaze with head and tail erect, until the monsters have disappeared. But from day to day the live stock become more accustomed to the sight and sound of the steam horse, and after a while they do not even cease grazing when the train passes. They have learned that it will do them no harm. The same result may be observed with respect to young horses when first they are brought to a large town, and have to meet great loads of hay, omnibuses crowded with passengers, and other strange or noisy objects—if judiciously treated, not flogged and ill-used, they lose their fears without losing their high courage. Nothing is more astonishing in London than the steadiness of the high-bred and highly-fed horses in the streets and in Hyde Park.