Robert Moreton

“ If he should struggle before you have got him into a clear space, use all your strength to hold him, but keep as quiet as possible, or he will become so terrified at your struggles as to fight all the more, and it will become a pitched battle between the colt at one end of the cavasson and yourself at the other for mastery. ”

“ I am certain that if horses were driven without blinkers such accidents caused by running away would be [130] greatly diminished; it is only fashion, that bugbear of society, that causes blinkers to be an inseparable part of harness. I am sure a horse looks better without them if people would only accustom themselves to the sight. Why hide a horse’s eyes, the most expressive feature in his head? What would a lady be if her eyes were put out or hidden from view, and unable to use them as some know only too well how to do. ”

“ Therefore, make it a rule to give your horse his head and allow him to take his leaps as he thinks best, for depend upon it his instinct will teach him what is required far better than you can. I have seen many a fall in the hunting-field through no fault whatever of the horse, but owing to the meddling of his rider who imagined he was able to lift or assist him. When a horse has over-jumped himself or is in danger of losing his balance, if you pull at the bit it disconcerts him, draws his attention away from his danger, and down he goes as a rule. ”

“ Men think now-a-days they can mouth a colt by machinery. They tie his head up and down in the most intricate manner, put a great bit in his mouth, and if the bit is not considered heavy enough, a bag of shot is tied to each side of it. The animal is then forced to stand in a stall with his head tightly buckled up to the roller, and there he is made to stand, fastened [35] to the pillar reins, in a fixed position for hours at a time. No wonder that half the horses in England have mouths like cast-iron. Colts cannot be mouthed by machinery, but only by proper handling in the saddle. ”

“ A child cannot learn his alphabet and play with the animals in his Noah’s ark at the same time; much less, therefore, can a colt, being unable to understand what you say to him, learn by your voice, manner, and caresses, what you wish of him, when there is another horse or man near him, whose least movement will attract his attention, if not alarm him, being as he is in a perfectly new position—namely, in close contact with a man, who as yet he is unable to perceive will hurt him or not, but his instinct points to the former. ”

“ A hunter should be as near perfection as regards make and shape as possible, he should be eager, but at the same time his temper must be good, his mouth also should be perfect. It is easy to buy a so-called ‘made hunter’ provided the purse be of sufficient elasticity to meet the demands of the vendor. As a rule, and with very few exceptions, this ‘made hunter’ is a good leaper, has a hard mouth, and when in view of a fence clenches his bit in his mouth, and rushes at it at the speed of twenty miles an hour. ”

“ Ride the animal about the field for an hour or an hour and a half quietly, not going out of a walk or jig-jog, and then take him back to his loose box, and repeat the same in the afternoon, your object at present being to get him used to your weight on his back, and to gradual guidance; you are not trying to mouth him, or attempting to teach him his paces. ‘Little by little,’ and ‘Perseverando,’ are my mottoes, and ought to be those of every man who undertakes to break-in a colt. It is very much like bringing up a child ”

“ There are many methods of doing this in vogue, most of which are by brute force; for instance, a farmer has a colt he wishes to halter, so he gets his men together, and drives the colt into a yard or stable; a man then hangs on to the timid animal by one of his ears and his nose, another man seizes his tail, whilst three or four more men push against either side of the poor frightened beast; then ensues a struggle: the colt, frightened out of his senses and not knowing what is required of him, fights the half-dozen men clinging to him; he rears, kicks, bites, and strikes with his fore feet. ”

“ The Trot.—There are three kinds of trot: the jog-trot or jig-jog, the true trot, and the flying-trot. The jog-trot is a most uncomfortable [70] pace, and is not faster than a walk; the flying-trot is that indulged in by the Americans, and by our own countrymen in trotting-matches, but as the true trot is the only one used by the bulk of the people in this country, I shall confine myself to describing the method of teaching the colt the proper mode of progressing in that pace. The jog-trot is a modification of the true trot, whilst the flying-trot is an exaggeration of it ”

“ To teach a colt the true trot, the reins should not be held slack as in walking, but should be well gathered up to make the animal place his hind legs well under him, and also cause him to lift his fore limbs higher, thus giving him knee action; the great beauty and comfort in the trot being free action, and as an extreme pace is not required, comfort and looks are placed in the scale against flying speed. ”

“ In teaching a colt over artificial fences, great care must be taken not to sicken him of his work, but every endeavour should be made to get him to be fond and eager to jump; therefore, if he is ridden once backwards and forwards over the fences three times a week it will be quite sufficient. In the meantime you may give him a leap or two out of one field into another, or take him out with the hounds for a short distance.
A perfect leaper is one who takes his fences [97] as a matter of course, just as he would canter from furrow to furrow over a field ”

“ The colt is then beaten with a broom or pitchfork-handle, his tail is twisted, and every means of inflicting excruciating pain is resorted to, which instead of subduing the animal has the reverse effect; the colt, being driven to madness, struggles and fights until he vanquishes his foes. ”

“ A horse is not able to undergo regular hunting until he is six years old, and even then he should not be worked hard. I think all our own countrymen know this, although they do not always bring it into practice. The Americans know it and profit by it. A growing colt does not make internal fat as does the adult, therefore the system not having attained firmness, cannot bear the scraping and sweating necessary to get him into condition for the hunting-field or for the racecourse. If the fat is taken off a colt, his muscular development is interfered with. ”

“ And M. Carriès took advantage of the horse’s stupor to put a saddle and bridle upon him, after which Trocadéro submitted like a lamb to have his fore-feet shod, and ultimately his hind-feet, without more ado. The dodging process of M. Carriès certainly beats for simplicity even the throwing-down process of Mr. Rarey; but it might be awkward if the tamer were to meet with a horse less susceptible of “stupeur” than Trocadéro appears to be. ”

“ I should like to know what pleasure can be derived by riding such a brute as above described. It takes all a man can do to moderate the animal’s pace, it requires two hands on the reins to turn [87] him from side to side, and the rider has the pleasant prospect in the event of a mistake at a fence, of his horse not being able to recover himself, the almost inevitable ‘spill’ being the result. ”

“ You will of course have a fight some time or other, for the colt may wish at some cross roads to choose one for himself, irrespective of any choice on your part, or he may wish to follow some horse on the road before him, and refuse to leave an animal feeding by the roadside, but in whichever mode he disputes your authority you must undeceive him, and that thoroughly and at once. ”

“ The bit I prefer to all others when breaking a colt to single harness is the smooth ring snaffle, with the reins passed through both rings on either side, thus converting it into an ordinary snaffle; but if you buckle them to the separate ring on either side, the bit becomes too severe, pinches the jaw, and causes so much pain that the animal fights with it, and becoming restive, pays no attention to what you wish to teach him. ”

“ In fact a bushman knows to a mile how far he has gone by consulting his watch only, for he is able to tell through experience the pace his horse is walking at, just in the same way that a jockey judges the speed of his race-horse. At all the largest horse-shows in the Australian Colonies, special prizes are given for the best walking horses.
To teach a horse to walk well is a very easy matter, only requiring patience, time, and a certain amount of knack. ”

“ When breaking-in a well-bred horse to harness, that is to say, one whose pace will be the trot and not the slow drudgery of the farm or cart-horse, he must previously have been well mouthed and broken to the saddle, before a set of harness is placed on him. ”

“ Some owners of race-horses run their two-year-olds to find out their weak points. In cases where weak points are observable at that age, if raced, they are sure to develop, and thus cripple the colt perhaps for life, whilst if he had been allowed to lay by until of a maturer age, in all probability this weakness would have disappeared. Again, [103] if a sound colt be trained and raced when two years of age, it is ten to one that his tendons and bones are not able to stand the work, but that in all probability he will get sore shins, splints, or perhaps some worse disease of the legs or feet. ”

“ If the men follow up quietly, and at a certain distance (for they must not be too close, or the animal will take fright and gallop away) the colt will, as a rule, follow his leader. The most important point is perfect quietness on the part of the men engaged in this business; they should, however, speak in low soothing tones to the colt, and do anything they may happen to think of to allay the fears of the young animal. ”

“ After standing in the stirrup for a few seconds, lower yourself to the ground again, and then repeat the same a few times, until the colt seems quiet and used to it, when you may throw your right leg gently over his back, taking care not to touch him with it, and placing all your weight on your right hand, grasping the pommel of the saddle. When your leg is over his back, lower it quietly into its proper position, but keep it from touching the animal’s side until you have gently seated yourself in the saddle, then put your foot in the stirrup and there you are. ”

“ Not more than two men should be in the stable now, one of them to hold the old horse, and watch his opportunity of leading him out, and the other to insinuate himself by degrees between the colt and the old horse, and stop the colt rushing out when he finds the horse is leaving him. ”

“ When you first begin to follow hounds with your colt, do not stay with them more than an hour, and if they are running fast leave them before that time has expired, for your object at present is not to gallop after hounds, but to accustom your animal to the bustle and excitement connected with hunting. ”

“ He of course will be astonished at your temerity and struggle, but will soon give in, when you must try to induce him quietly to walk, trot, or canter as he likes in a circle round you, the length of the cavasson being the radius of the circle. It is as well to have a whip with you, but do not use it or even crack it until every other means have been tried to induce the colt to do as you wish. As a rule he will give no trouble, but will run round you at the length of his halter, pulling more or less strongly upon the cavasson. ”

“ A colt being broken to single harness should not be driven down anything like a steep hill until he is handy at other things, for this is the most difficult lesson of all for him to learn, as he then has the full weight of the vehicle pushing against him, and it takes a long time before he will learn to keep himself straight in the breeching, but will push sideways and run into the opposite bank, if the man at his head does not take care and help him. ”

“ There is also a danger should the colt fight much, especially with his fore-feet, of their becoming entangled in the martingale or reins. Men put the common martingale on when riding a young colt, for the simple reason that it gives them a good purchase, and thus enables them to hold on; a man who requires this aid to keep him in the saddle should never attempt to break-in a colt, that is, if he wishes him to have a good mouth, or one only a little removed from cast-iron. ”

“ The colt is taught to canter by urging him forward, the meanwhile restraining him with the bit. In the canter as in the trot, true action is required, and for the same reason, namely, that speed not being requisite, comfort and beauty of pace take its place, which can only be accomplished by having the hind legs well drawn under the body, and the knees well elevated and flexed. If the colt is for a gentleman to ride, I do not think it matters which [74] fore-leg he leads with, for, as in the trot, some animals lead better with one than the other ”

“ Therefore those men who break-in horses for their own use take very great pains to teach them to walk well. In England the average pace of a horse which has any pretensions to walking is about four miles an hour, and I very much doubt if the best ever get to five. In Australia, where horses are educated to walk, good walkers can do their six miles an hour. The Americans educate their horses to trot, and beat us at that pace. A good Australian walking horse will be able to keep up five miles an hour for the distance of twenty miles ”