The Training and Management of Horses

I.

INTRODUCTION.

The general management of horses is a subject on which we can never be too well informed, especially those of us who are more immediately associated with them. The horse, of all the lower animals in this country, is by far the most noble, and, at the same time, by far the most useful. Indeed, it would be a practical impossibility, in this busy world of enterprise and commotion, to get along without the aid of this noble and useful animal. There is scarcely a single industry or trade throughout the whole country which is not in some measure, directly or indirectly, dependent on the horse; nor a single individual, to a greater or a less degree, who is not at times benefited by him. If we could imagine for a moment a sudden and total suspension of horse power for one short week, the results consequent on such a calamity would be almost incalculable in their disastrous effects. Trade would be paralysed, and all classes of industry would necessarily be reduced to a deadlock. Of course this is suggested simply to illustrate the real worth of the horse, on the same principle that few benefits are fully appreciated until they are gone, for, as the old proverb runs, We never miss the water till the well runs dry. The recent war in South Africa had a remarkable influence on the price of horses, which serves to illustrate their value and importance, notwithstanding the advantages of steam and other modes of locomotion. Whilst motor power, both on the road and in the field, has no doubt come to stay, yet horse labour cannot possibly be altogether superseded; there are a hundred odd jobs on the farm and in the town where motor locomotion is impracticable. When railways and steam were introduced, many writers predicted that the demand for horse power would be lessened; instead of that, however, time has proved that horses have been required in very greatly increased numbers. As it has been with railways and steam, it may not be too sanguine to hope that the demand for good, sound horses may still go on increasing.

Having sketched briefly how largely we are dependent on the horse as an essential agent to progress, we should like to impress on all those who have the direct management of him, to exercise, at all times and in all circumstances, a uniform kindness towards him.

THE POWER OF REASON OVER INSTINCT.

Far greater results can be accomplished by the judicious exercise of uniform kindness than by the coarse and cruel treatment which, in many cases, is only too prevalent at the present day.

There is one most important fact which should always be carefully remembered, and which should in all circumstances, however harassing, persuade man to act kindly towards the horse, and that is, his infinite superiority over him.

Man is endowed with the supreme power of reason and intelligence, by which he governs and controls his actions; whereas, the actions of the horse on the contrary, are only governed by mere brute instinct. This is an arrangement absolutely essential in maintaining the perfect balance of natural law by which animal power is concentrated and utilised for the benefit of mankind and the world in general. Were the lower animal world, like mankind, endowed with the calculating power of reasoning, the whole system of Nature would rapidly become deranged, and existence would become intolerable, if not impossible.

Animals possessed of great strength and power, like the horse, would throw off their subjection to man, and refuse to be controlled by a creature of his diminutive standard. Can anyone imagine for a moment a beautiful Arab horse of thoroughly proportioned symmetry, a highly strung nervous temperament, and the sharp, sensitive instincts peculiar to his breed—can anyone, we ask, imagine a fiery animal of this kind, possessed of the element of reason, remaining under the complete subjection of his rider? The thing is impossible. The noble Arab would never consent to his rider’s presumption. His insignificant rider could never face him on the platform of equality. The enormous physical superiority of the horse, guided by an intelligent process of reasoning, would baffle every attempt of the man to subdue him, and, by the very inequality of the contest, is it not likely that the rider would come out of it only second best?

Numerous instances of the sagacity of horses are recorded, which some people mistakenly attribute to reason, but, after a thorough investigation of the circumstances, they will generally be found to be but the simple and natural results of training and habit. Occasionally instances of apparent sagacity may arise from mere freak or accident, and are often fully and satisfactorily accounted for by their peculiar surrounding circumstances, which, when deliberately and carefully considered, almost preclude the possibility of any other course of action being participated in. In other words, the most natural thing for a horse to do, in given circumstances, is simply the thing that he does, and, as already suggested, his action may be the result of emergency, training, or habit. The law of instinct, like reason, is flexible and elastic to a limited degree, and while there is probably no hard and fast law to bind it to a definite course, it is absolutely incapable, so to speak, of getting outside of itself. It cannot extend its power beyond its natural instinctive faculty, and thus we find no animals improving their condition, socially or otherwise.

INCIDENT OF AN OFFICER’S HORSE.

We have read how an officer, in a recent Eastern campaign, was wounded and fell from his horse; how the sagacious animal returned to where he was lying and stood near him till, by an almost superhuman effort, he was able to mount, when the horse galloped forward to rejoin his comrades. This horse, in the extraordinary circumstances of the case, may have been scared by something unknown to his wounded rider and returned to him in the most natural way conceivable, or, probably, by the merest chance. He may have taken fright at some unusual object, heard his rider’s calls, or been trained when broken in to return when his rider fell off—(which excellent acquirement in a horse shall be fully dealt with in a future chapter). Various unexplained events may have caused the horse to return, of the existence of which the unfortunate officer could not possibly be cognisant. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and the wounded officer, after getting fairly astride him, might unconsciously apply the rowels to the flanks of the horse, and his mad haste to rejoin his comrades might be materially accelerated by a touch of the spur, an indication of the rein, or a desultory warning bullet from the enemy. The cause of the mad rush of the horse may not have been to save his master’s life. It may have been pure fright that induced him to take both journeys. There is nothing in this incident indicative of the power of reason, nothing that cannot consistently be attributed to chance, circumstance, training, or habit.

THE CIRCUS PERFORMING HORSE.

We shall now consider a more definite test of reason. The circus performing horse, from the many remarkable feats he accomplishes, might be considered a sort of ens rationis, by advocates of the theory of reason in animals, for it is doubtless true that when a well-trained horse is told to bring the cap of one of the spectators, he will obey and accomplish it every time without error. But even in this case there is no evidence of reason, as the horse acts simply as a machine in the hands of his trainer. The horse has been trained to perform this particular feat, and he obeys from sheer force of habit, because it is a notorious fact that, were his trainer to command him in the same habitual and persuasive accents to fetch a handkerchief instead of the orthodox cap, he would bring the latter every time without deviating in any way from his accustomed routine, demonstrating unmistakably that whenever the issue is the least confused he fails to rise to the occasion, because the indispensable power of reason is absent. His natural instinctive faculty cannot enable him to discriminate between a handkerchief and a cap. He fails to distinguish so nice a difference, which substantially proves that reason is a higher and nobler power—a sublime inspiration of thought which is necessarily foreign to his limited instinct, however strongly it may be developed through training and kindness.

ANOTHER TEST OF REASON.

Again, if a horse were looking over a wall and a man presented a gun at him from the opposite side, he would probably do one of two things:—either he would prick his ears and stare the danger in the face, or he would gallop round in a series of small circles—but neither course could be considered a safe or reasonable means of escape from the threatened danger. In both cases the gun would cover him just the same, whereas, if he possessed an intelligent thinking reason, in all likelihood he would drop down behind the wall, as ninety-nine men in every hundred would, allowing one per cent. for imbecility, and thus be completely screened from the range of fire.

INTELLIGENCE OF THE HORSE.

In Animal Intelligence, the late Mr G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., affirms that horses do not possess the highest instinct among herbivorous animals, while many of the larger carnivorous animals are endowed with much more acutely strung instincts.

The horse, he says, is not so intelligent an animal as any of the larger carnivora, while, among herbivorous quadrupeds, his sagacity is greatly exceeded by that of the elephant, and, in a lesser degree, by that of his congener, the ass. But quot homines tot sententiæ, and, while respecting the work of such an excellent observer, we venture to think the great majority of experienced horsemen would credit the horse with higher instinct than the ass.

KINDNESS VERSUS CRUELTY.

The gulf, then, which separates man from the lower animals is wide and impassable; the power which reason can exercise over instinct is marvellous, and, from the loftiness of this power, man should never descend to practise unkindness in any shape whatever towards the horse. Cruelty to horses is practised through pure ignorance—through a want of appreciation of man’s superior power in educating the natural instincts of the horse to yield submissively according to the special requirements in each individual case. As already explained, the horse does not possess the necessary intelligence to induce him to measure his power with man. No sane man ever tries to fight a horse on the power of his strength, but has recourse to other and safer means wherein a substitute is found to oppose and master it.

THE BASIS OF MANAGEMENT.

By the previous illustrations, and a long practical experience of horses, we have come to the conclusion that instinct is a force which can always be governed by reason, and that kindness is much more beneficial in its results than unkindness; therefore, those two important matters form the basis on which our method of horse management is elaborated, and we shall endeavour, through all the different stages, to establish its accuracy and practicability.

CHAPTER II.

VARIATIONS OF TEMPERAMENT IN MEN AND HORSES.

There is just the same amount of difference between a well-trained and a badly-trained horse, as there is between a well-educated and an under-educated person. The one is cultured and refined, the other awkward and coarse, or, to use a very popular expression, He is just as Nature made him.

No one of ordinary appreciative ability requires to be long in the company of another to discover whether he has been well educated or not, nor does it take the skilled horseman more than a few minutes to determine the training of a horse, whether it has been good or bad; thus, to a great extent, horses are made pretty much what they are according to their breaking and management. Even a quiet horse in bad hands may very soon become unmanageable.

SYMPATHY BETWEEN HORSE AND MAN.

There is a peculiar link of sympathy between horse and man, and that is:—that a horse just requires about the same time to find out a man’s merits or demerits as a man takes to find out his. Many people hold the opinion that this is utter nonsense, and that no bond, sympathetic or otherwise, can possibly exist between a horse and a man. This is a difficult matter to explain on paper, and, whilst it may not be understood by a novice, every average horseman will readily appreciate this mysterious link which is felt rather than seen.

HOW THE HORSE KNEW THE RIDER.

We knew a case of a young man in town who suddenly inherited a large fortune. He had been accustomed to ride a bicycle, but, anxious to do the county squire, he visited a country friend to purchase a hunter. He had never previously ridden, and those readers who know anything about equestrian science will readily appreciate the humour and novelty of his position. As soon as he was fairly astride the horse, he knocked the ashes from his cigar, adjusted his eyeglasses, and drew his whip across the flanks of the spirited hunter. The horse bounded in the air and so did the rider, but before either touched terra firma a dissolution of partnership had occurred. In this case, the horse knew the rider in one brief moment, but the rider never knew that horse all his life.

HOW THE RIDER KNEW THE HORSE.

Again, we knew a gentleman who owned a very valuable hunter, but there was a certain road along which the horse habitually refused to go. He would rear, plunge, and throw his rider on all occasions. The owner, being a timid man, always withdrew his feet from the stirrups on approaching this particular place, making sure, at least, that when thrown he would not be dragged. At length the owner grew frightened to ride the horse, and offered him for sale. A gentleman came to try him, got upon his back, and, as luck would have it, turned him exactly in the direction of the fatal road. On nearing the place, the rider found the horse drawing himself together as if to wheel, and, taking him well in hand, dug the persuaders full to the hilt immediately behind the girths, with the result that the terrified brute bounded past like a rocket—the first time he had been ridden past for many a long day. Thus, by inserting the spurs in his ribs, instead of withdrawing his feet from the irons like his owner, who was always riding for a fall, the rider accomplished with ease what to another man was impossible, simply by presence of mind, and doing the right thing in the right place at the proper time.

Thus, as already indicated, there is a close sympathy between horse and man, and, in bad hands, a good horse may become a bad one, while, in good hands, a bad horse may become a good one. Bad horsemen are met with in larger numbers than bad horses, force, rather than kindness, being the key to their management generally.

FOUR ELEMENTS NECESSARY IN A GOOD HORSEMAN.

There are four elements necessary in the nature and character of man to render him a good and proficient horseman, and these are:—patience, perseverance, a steady nerve, and an active presence of mind. Patience and perseverance in all cases will prove of invaluable service; a good nerve is indispensable, without which no man can ever be pronounced a good horseman; and an active presence of mind will prove of inestimable service in cases of emergency, when prompt and immediate action must be taken. Indeed, one active man with a cool head is worth half-a-dozen men who are nervous and excitable.

DEGREES OF TEMPERAMENT IN HORSES.

There is a great difference in the temperament of horses, consequently they require varying degrees of treatment in order to obtain general and satisfactory results. A high-spirited, nervous animal requires to be handled with extreme care, for, although he is easily overcome on the one hand, he is proportionately easily spoiled on the other. A stubborn, bad-tempered animal not only requires different degrees of treatment, but may require a separate system of treatment altogether. He is not so easily overcome; his instinctive senses are duller and less perceptive, consequently a much longer time is necessary in imparting to him the precise ideas he is intended to conceive. He will generally learn less in half-a-dozen lessons than a nervous, high-spirited colt will learn in one.

INDICATIONS OF TEMPERAMENT.

The practised eye of a skilled horseman can predict pretty accurately in a few minutes what the character of a horse is likely to be. The chief indications are found in the eyes, the position of the ears, and the general conformation of the head. A great deal might be written on the various shapes of skulls as indicating the different character and temperament of horses. It is quite possible to reduce them to a very sound and accurate theory, but it would occupy too much time and space to enumerate them all, besides, a scientific knowledge of this matter is not absolutely necessary in the ordinary management of horses. A few of the more pronounced indications shall be given, however, which may prove of some help to the uninitiated in determining the character of different horses with which they may have to deal.

A horse that is continually moving his eyes about in all directions with a somewhat startled expression, and his ears well forward and stationary, will generally be in possession of a good and even temper. There is a great difference between a startled expression in the eyes and a watchful one. The ears are scarcely ever laid back when a horse is startled, but when he is watchful they are generally in that position. In the latter case, a horse does not turn his head about much, but indulges in quick, furtive glances in all directions.

A horse that is continually rolling his eyes about, and showing the white portion to a marked degree, while his ears are constantly on the move—the one forward and the other backward alternately—may be estimated with certainty to be extremely shy and nervous.

When a horse has a quick, watchful eye, his ears working fitfully in all directions, inclined to squeal if his fore-legs are touched, and giving his tail an occasional whisk, in nine cases out of ten he will be a pronounced and confirmed kicker.

Or, if a horse has unusually small eyes, deeply sunk, placed very nearly perpendicular in his head, his ears inclined backward, and occasionally showing his teeth, he will generally develop some vice in unskilled hands, and in all likelihood it will be that of biting.

A horse with a prominent forehead will generally be game and plucky, with a strong, determined temper, although, if carefully trained, he is generally very easily managed. There is a difference between a prominent and a bumpy forehead; the latter is generally indicative of underbreeding, and sometimes denotes reversion to a remote ancestral type.

A horse with a hollow forehead, or dish-faced, as it is familiarly termed, will be soft in temperament if the cavity is far down, but if well elevated between the eyes, he will generally be a match to the gamest and pluckiest of horses either on the road or in the field. The writer recently had the pleasure of examining a Canadian-bred Polo pony in possession of an excellent sportsman and straight-riding member of the North Durham Hunt. The cavity between the eyes of this pony is most pronounced, suggesting either a freak of nature, or an accident during foal-hood—probably the latter, as the indentation is too deep and abrupt to be explained by natural causes.

It is said that a good horse is never a bad colour, still, colour frequently plays an important part in determining the peculiarities of temperament in horses. Bright bays, browns, blacks, and dark chesnuts are generally good - tempered and hardy constitutionally; while light coloured bays and chesnuts are often hot-tempered, excitable animals, with delicate constitutions. Greys are objectionable on account of their susceptibility to dirt. When shedding their coats, the hairs lodge about the clothes of people who are near them, and are very conspicuous from their colour. For this reason alone, gentlemen will scarcely purchase grey horses, unless possessed of some special qualifications. To neutralise their conspicuous appearance, the horses of the Scots Greys were dyed khaki colour in South Africa, which was said to remain fixed for a couple of months. Grey horses are generally hardy and good-tempered, and as they grow older they become lighter in colour. There are many intermediate shades between the light and dark of all colours, and, in a general way, those on the darker side will be the better horses, but to lay down definite rules on the subject is an utter impossibility. This subject will be more fully considered in a subsequent chapter. Practice, and not theory, is the regulating factor in the selection and purchase of horses. White markings on the faces and legs are sometimes objected to for matching purposes, but when matching is not a necessity, they should never be considered.

HORSES ARE NOT BORN VICIOUS.

It is sometimes supposed that horses are born vicious, but such a supposition, in the opinion of the writer, is a complete mistake. Vice is imported into their characters, as a rule, by being mistouched, mismanaged, and, to a great extent, by general unkindness. Vice proper is never apparent in the colt; it is only when he becomes a horse that it begins to manifest itself. Were the principle of vice inherent in horses, it would be quite reasonable to expect it in young colts just the same as in matured horses. Vice is never found in a colt if left to himself. Much mischief is often done to young foals by lads teasing them. Foals, played with in this way, acquire tricks which generally develop into the worst forms of vice, and a greater number of horses are ruined, when they are mere foals, by boys, than people are aware of. In fact, foals that have been made tricky very seldom evolve into quiet, useful horses. Boys and foals are bad companions, but the treatment of the latter will be fully considered in the following chapter. It would be quite safe to enter a field where a number of colts were grazing that had not previously been touched by man, as they would only manifest symptoms of wonder and fear. Were we to lie down amongst them, some of the bolder ones might venture near enough to smell at us, but in no case would they attack us as other naturally vicious animals would, which proves conclusively that vice does not naturally belong to horses, but is imported into their character and becomes an