The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 67 pages of information about The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses.

The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 67 pages of information about The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses.

If your horse, instead of being wild, seems to be of a stubborn or mulish disposition; if he lays back his ears as you approach him, or turns his heels to kick you, he has not that regard or fear of man that he should have, to enable you to handle him quickly and easily; and it might be well to give him a few sharp cuts with the whip, about the legs, pretty close to the body.  It will crack keen as it plies around his legs, and the crack of the whip will affect him as much as the stroke; besides one sharp cut about his legs will affect him more than two or three over his back, the skin on the inner part of his legs or about his flank being thinner, more tender than on his back.  But do not whip him much, just enough to scare him, it is not because we want to hurt the horse that we whip him, we only do it to scare that bad disposition out of him.  But whatever you do, do quickly, sharply and with a good deal of fire, but always without anger.  If you are going to scare him at all you must do it at once.  Never go into a pitch battle with your horse, and whip him until he is mad and will fight you; you had better not touch him at all, for you will establish, instead of fear and regard, feelings of resentment, hatred and ill-will.  It will do him no good but an injury, to strike a blow, unless you can scare him; but if you succeed in scaring him, you can whip him without making him mad; for fear and anger never exist together in the horse, and as soon as one is visible, you will find that the other has disappeared.  As soon as you have frightened him so that he will stand up straight and pay some attention to you, approach him again and caress him a good deal more than you whipped him, then you will excite the two controlling passions of his nature, love and fear, and then he will fear and love you too, and as soon as he learns what to do will quickly obey.

HOW TO HALTER AND LEAD THE COLT.

As soon as you have gentled the colt a little, take the halter in your left hand and approach him as before, and on the same side that you have gentled him.  If he is very timid about your approaching closely to him, you can get up to him quicker by making the whip a part of your arm, and reaching out very gently with the but end of it, rubbing him lightly on the neck, all the time getting a little closer, shortening the whip by taking it up in your hand, until you finally get close enough to put your hands on him.  If he is inclined to hold his head from you, put the end of the halter strap around his neck, drop your whip, and draw very gently; he will let his neck give, and you can pull his head to you.  Then take hold of that part of the halter, which buckles over the top of his head, and pass the long side, or that part which goes into the buckle, under his neck, grasping it on the opposite side with your right hand, letting the first strap loose—­the latter will be sufficient to hold his head to you.  Lower the

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The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.