Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-08


Good Horse Sense what an Experienced
Trainer Says.
New York Press.
"Horses, - says Professor George Bar
tholomew, care a good deal like men;
you can train them to do pretty much
what you want Nature doesn It seem TO
have made them to do much talking, but
1 believe their capacities in other respects
are probably far in excess of anything
we have yet conceived. And the meth
DDS. of training are very similar You
can t force horse into learning a thing
any more than you can man. AffecJ
ton is at the root of successful teaching !
IN both eases.
''When 1 buy a horse and begin to
train him my first step is to win his con-
fidence. Till accomplish this 1 can do
nothing with him. Then begin to teach
him a simple act. To make him lift his
foot on to a pedestal, for instance, I
would place the pedestal in front of him
and touch him gently on a sensitive part
of the knee, at the same time constantly
repeating some word expressive of the
act l wanted him to perform. OF course
the horse doesn t know what the word
means, and he probably does half dozen
wrong things before he does the right
one. The moment he does it, however,
| hold the foot there, fOndle it and show
my approval in every way possible. This
is repeated so many times q day till the
horse gets to know what is wanted when
ever he hears the word.
$50 with more difficult acts. Some of
them take a long time 20 learn. 1t took
me nearly year. patient work to teach
Abdallah to walk, trot, gallop, march
- 4 E
word of command, but the way he does
it now repays me for all the trouble. -
''What description of horses can 1 train
in this way? Why, any horse People
suppose that thorOughbreds alone can be
so developed, but it is a great mistake.
Any ordinary horse, you know, under
stands what you mean by "whoa'' and
back. - So it can be taught to know
what you mean by any other word or
sign you like. Some horses can, OF
course, be taught much more easily than
others, and, like men, some who prove
very stupid at one act are expertssat an
other. When l buy a horse / pay mole
attention to his head than 1 do to his
pedigree. L believe you can read horse
just as you can man.
''ManY people, continued the pro-
lessor, "suppose that the horses go
lANOhSh LhAS DCAA OA III duLOuldLit
fashion; that by doing day after day the
same thing they come to do it as a matter
of course without regard to what 1 may
say to them. This is a great mistake.
Anyone in the audience is at liberty 70
have the order of the programme changed
at any time. When 1 give an order out
of place there will be a momentary
pause; the horses look up questioningly
as if to say: Haven't you made q
mistaken 1 repeat the order once OF
twice, until the meaning of the word as
Stimulates with the memory of the action,
and then they at once perform it.
Punishment? I have little need Of
it. 1 of course show very sternIy my
disapproval of wrong, just as 1 fondIe
them for doing right, but 1 have
little occasion to use the whip.
One thing would amuse You.
When a number of my horses are stand
ing in a row, and I crack the whip at a
disobedient one, not one of the others
viii move They seem TO say: eOh,
that s for the other fellow.
1T would surprise you how sensitive
they are to applause. They are a good
deal like other actors in that respect.
They know perfectly well when there is a
big house, and perform so much better
then that one would think they had an
eye on the receipts.
''All this clearly shows that the horse
possesses a memory, and of course it fol-
lows that he can think. He has the
power of reason, and not merely in
stinct. Instinct might send him in search
of water and oats, but ii would never
lead him to do such feats as these His
memory, too, is a remarkably good one.
Prior to this year I sent my horses out on
pasturage at Newport for several months
during the summer. From there they
went right on the stage and performed
without rehearsal Just as good as kg
ever did. +"
Refrigeratorz esseIinA stoves, ice
tongs and picks, everything IN summer
speeIa les. at w. T. Lake 5.