For this purpose a small basket or some light article which he can easily seize with his mouth, should be used. Place the handle in his mouth and shut his mouth upon it. Should he drop it when you remove your hand, speak sharply to him, and replace it in his mouth. When he retains it you are to let it remain a few moments, then remove it, pat him, speak encouragingly to him, and reward him. In a short time offer it to him again saying, “Take it,” and he will probably do so; if not place it his mouth and repeat the course already described. When he has learned to take the basket on its being offered, let him follow you around with it in his mouth; then let some one else give it to him while you stand at a distance; now call him toward you and reward him for bringing it to you. He will thus learn in a short time to bring you any article given him. After this, place the basket upon the ground, call his attention to it, order him to “take it,” and he probably will obey, if not, place it in his mouth and repeat the instruction until he will pick it up from the ground. Then a handkerchief or other article may be substituted for the basket, which articles he will soon understand are to be picked up also. He will soon learn to pick up anything you may drop in his presence, or to seize hold of any article that may be offered him, and this latter act may be applied to many tricks, as hereafter described.
FINDING A HIDDEN HANDKERCHIEF.
Having taught the horse to pick up any article dropped in his presence, take a handkerchief and cover it partially with loose earth, leaving it sufficiently exposed for him to readily seize it. Repeat the operation, each time covering the handkerchief more and more completely until it is entirely concealed. He will by this means be led to look for it even when it is entirely covered up. An assistant may now hold his hands over the horse’s eyes while the handkerchief is being concealed. Before an audience this adds to the credit of the performance, but as the handkerchief is hidden in nearly the same place, the horse knows where to look for it and will soon unearth it. Even when hidden at the option of the spectator it is easy to indicate to the horse where to look, by a signal, or his sense of smell will lead him to the spot. Oil of rhodium is said by some to be employed in this trick, to guide the animal to the hidden article. This may be true in some cases but the horse can so easily be taught to accomplish the thing desired without its use that we doubt its being used to any considerable extent.
Another plan adopted for teaching this trick is the following: Spread on the sawdust a white cloth containing a liberal supply of oats, lead the animal around the ring and let him take some of the oats. This is lesson first; its object being to fix in the horse’s mind a connection between the cloth and the oats. The march around the circle being once or twice repeated, he stops at the handkerchief as a matter of course. By dint of practice, say in a couple of weeks, he will learn to stop as readily in a trot or a gallop as in a walk. After a time the handkerchief must be doubled over and tied in a knot; the animal shakes it to get at the grain, but not succeeding, lifts it from the ground, which is just the thing wanted. When the horse has done this a few times, and finds that though he can shake nothing out he will receive a handful of oats as a reward, he may be trusted to perform in public.
TO SELECT A CHOSEN CARD.
In performing this trick in public one of the audience is allowed to choose a card from the pack, and this card, with several others is thrown on the ground. The horse is then asked by his master to select the chosen card from among them, and to give it to the person who chose it. This sounds like quite a difficult feat, especially, as is usually the case, if he has had his eyes blindfolded while the selection of the card was being made.
Having taught the horse to find and pick up the handkerchief it is very easy to substitute any other article in its place. If a card should be substituted it would be picked up just as anything else would be. The main difficulty is to teach the horse to pick the one desired from among the others, and that one only. To do this, spread half a dozen cards upon the ground at intervals of about ten feet. Let the horse go to one end of this line of cards. He will naturally stop at the first one he comes to, and, if left to himself, will pick it up. Instead of allowing him to do this, start him ahead with the voice using the term “Get up,” or any other which he has been taught means “go ahead.” Do this until he reaches the card which you desire him to pick up, at this you must remain silent unless he is about to pass it by like the former ones, in which case you say “Whoa,” and keep him standing before it until he picks it up. When he does this, reward him and speak encouragingly to him, that he may know he has done what you wished. If you make a practice of speaking to him when he stops at the wrong cards, and of keeping silent when he reaches the right one he will soon come to understand that “silence gives consent,” and that that is the proper card to select. The order in which the chosen card is placed in the row should be varied so that the horse may not learn to select the card by its position instead of obeying your signal. This enables you to let your auditors place the cards in any position or order their fancy may dictate without interfering at all with the successful “working” of the horse.
After he has learned to select the desired card without hesitation, he must be so taught that he will hand it to the person who may have selected it, when he comes to perform in public. To teach him this, have an assistant stationed at some distance from you, and when the horse comes to you with the card, instead of taking it from him as you have been accustomed to do, turn his head in the direction of your assistant and start him up. He will go to the assistant if the latter holds out his hand, and, perhaps, whistles to him. Pretty soon the whistling may be dispensed with, and he will carry the card in any direction indicated in search of some one to receive it. When he comes to perform in the ring he will go around the edge looking for somebody to whom he may relinquish the card. The proper person will probably hold out his hand to take it, but a hundred others will quite as certainly do the same thing. Now if the horse selects the right person in spite of the other claimants to lead him astray, a round of applause is pretty sure to crown his success. To insure this he should be taught to relinquish the card at some particular signal given by the trainer. A cough will answer, or any word which can be incorporated into a sentence addressed to him, without being detected by the audience. We have given sufficient instruction on this point in preceding pages, we believe, to enable the trainer to use his own discretion as to the manner of associating the signal with the giving-up of the card, in the horse’s mind.
TO FIRE OFF A PISTOL.
