at and system."

There is nothing that requires more patience and firmness than a shying
horse. Shying arises from three causes--defective eyesight,
skittishness, and fear. If a horse always shies from the same side you
may be sure the eye on that side is defective.

You may know that a horse shies from skittishness if he flies one day
snorting from what he meets the next with indifference; dark stables
also produce this irregular shying.

Nervousness, which is often increased by brutality, as the horse is not
only afraid of the object, but of the whipping and spurring he has been
accustomed to receive, can be alleviated, to some extent, by the
treatment already described in the horse-training chapter. But horses
first brought from the country to a large town are likely to be alarmed
at a number of objects. You must take time to make them acquainted with
each. For instance, I brought a mare from the country that everything
moving seemed to frighten. I am convinced she had been ill-used, or had
had an accident in harness. The first time a railway train passed in her
sight over a bridge spanning the road she was travelling, she would turn
round and would have run away had I not been able to restrain her; I
could feel her heart beat between my legs. Acting on the principles of
Xenophon and Mr. Rarey, I allowed her to turn, but compelled her to
stand, twenty yards off, while the train passed. She looked back with a
fearful eye all the time--it was a very slow luggage train--while I
soothed her. After once or twice she consented to face the train,
watching it with crested neck and ears erect; by degrees she walked
slowly forwards, and in the course of a few days passed under the bridge
in the midst of the thunder of a train with perfect indifference.

If you can distinctly ascertain that a horse shies and turns round from
mere skittishness, correct him when he turns, not as long as he faces
the object: he will soon learn that it is for turning that he is visited
with whip and spurs. A few days' practice and patience essentially alter
the character of the most nervous horses.

Books contain very elaborate descriptions of what a hack or a hunter
should be in form, &c. To most persons these descriptions convey no
practical ideas. The better plan is to take lessons on the proportions
and anatomy of a horse from some intelligent judge or veterinary
surgeon. You must study, and buy, and lose your money on many horses
before y