et him to do of his own accord,
without force, must be accomplished by some means of conveying our ideas
to his mind. I say to my horse "go 'long" and he goes; "ho!" and he stops:
because these two words, of which he has learned the meaning by the tap
of the whip, and the pull of the rein that first accompanied them, convey
the two ideas to his mind of go and stop.
Faucher, or no one else, can ever learn the horse a single thing by the
means of a scent alone.
How long do you suppose a horse would have to stand and smell of a bottle
of oil before he would learn to bend his knee and make a bow at your
bidding, "go yonder and bring your hat," or "come here and lay down?" Thus
you see the absurdity of trying to break or tame the horse by the means of
receipts for articles to smell of, or medicine to give him, of any kind
whatever.
The only science that has ever existed in the world, relative to the
breaking of horses, that has been of any account, is that true method
which takes them in their native state, and improves their intelligence.
POWEL'S SYSTEM OF APPROACHING THE COLT.
But, before we go further, I will give you Willis J. Powel's system of
approaching a wild colt, as given by him in a work published in Europe,
about the year 1811, on the "Art of taming wild horses." He says, "A horse
is gentled by my secret, in from two to sixteen hours." The time I have
most commonly employed has been from four to six hours. He goes on to say:
"Cause your horse to be put in a small yard, stable, or room. If in a
stable or room, it ought to be large in order to give him some exercise
with the halter before you lead him out. If the horse belong to that class
which appears only to fear man, you must introduce yourself gently into
the stable, room, or yard, where the horse is. He will naturally run from
you, and frequently turn his head from you; but you must walk about
extremely slow and softly, so that he can see you whenever he turns his
head towards you, which he never fails to do in a short time, say in a
quarter of an hour. I never knew one to be much longer without turning
towards me.
"At the very moment he turns his head, hold out your left hand towards
him, and stand perfectly still, keeping your eyes upon the horse, watching
his motions if he makes any. If the horse does not stir for ten or fifteen
minutes, advance as slowly as possible, and without making the least
noise, always holding out your left hand, with
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