Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-04
Joaquin Miller on How to Ride
and Manage the Horse.
Hero Of Many Great Horseback Ride
Gives His Impressions to the
Publie-Modern Mistakes.
The Best Teacher IA the Horse Him7alf- Whsn
Horse is at HIS Best-The Saddle.
The English rs Riders
Copyrighted 1870 by the Author.

''The speed of though. is in his limbs, -
and all that sort of thing. But outside
of his neck and his legs. if you lay aside
the romance ard the poetry that gather
about shis most glorious animal on earth,
not even excepting man, the horse Is
simply an infant in arms; or, at best,
he is but small boy standing alone in
the twilight, with his mud stored full of
bugaboo stories, and ready to run away
at the slightest strange sight or sound.
The horse is mental bankrupt.
Ir | could only impress this fact firmly
on all tyros who take it into their heads
to handle horses, | could save many
limb, and indeed, many life every
year.
But the trouble is every one has read.
more or less, about 1.-the saRacity of tine
horse - has looked on pictures of horses
IN battle, i'll every one of which the
horse has his head to the foe; his neck is.
indeed, 'elothed with thunder, ''hs
hears the captains and the shoutiugs.
and he cries, ha, ha,'' The horses that
run away i'll battle. that run away Oh
every possible occasiou-in fact, till they
eau no longer use their legs to adyan-
tage, are not set down either in the pic
lures or the prints. Aud SO it Is that the
man or the woman who takes fancy TO
handle horses begins with the horses seen
in the galleries or in books of poetry and
romance. The result is disgust and dis
trust: broken ideals, if not broken
bones.
We have here in California, at least
so the race records prove, the fieetest as
we'll as the finest horses on the globe.
And of course these finest horses are
owned by the finest horsemeu. Ia fact,
l never saw any man or woman on the
other side of the Mississippi who could
really ride.
But we handle the horses which we
find in the fields and stable out here;
not the horses which are to be found on
walls and in books; :such as never were
on sea or land
The sudden revival Of horseback prac-
tice in America almost ooInpels me TO
say some very plain things about the
friend aud companion of all the years OF
my life. Only to think that fifteen
years ago I often rode the entire bridle-
path of Central Park without seeing a
single saddle horse; aud yet last sum
mer, when on visit to New York,
could see hundreds daily. But even this
new fancy for the noblest diversion
would not induce me to write of the
horse aud his master, for my both hands
are more than busy with other work, if
men who know nothing about horses
would only let the subject alone. But
it is these men who know nothing, 1t
seems to mo, that say everything.
For example, one man said to be quite
an authority, too, says: ''HOld on to
your horse by the knees; never let day
light be seen between your knees aud
your horse. -
Now, il little dot of child that 10
just beginning to walk by pushing
chair around should write O book on Pc
destrisn exercise, l recken it would be
pretty certain to say: 'Hold on to your
chair. Gentlemen, you ehould never
let any daylight be seens between your
knees aud your chair!'
And so, of course, l find no serious
fault with this teacher OF equestrianism
who insists on hanging on to his horse by
the knee; only he should have told US he
had attained to no higher degree of per-
lection than that OF the little dot that
holds on TO the chair.
81 made my generals out of mud, -
said Napoleon the Great. And he should
have added that he always used great
ways chose not only his generals. but
his bosom friends from men who were
masters of the horse. Think of that 700
miles ride from Madrid to say ten words
to Prince Metternich of Austria! And
we read that Cesar rode 100 miles and
then fought and wnn a great battle on
the same day! :My son, such king
dom more worthy thee than Macedon, -
said Philip. as the young conquerer OF
orld leaped to the ground from a horse
which no other man in Greece had the
address to back.
And now these three great examples
of these three greatest men in the trade
of arms bring me to the utterance of the
first great fact in connection with the
mastery of the horse. 1t Is this: The
horse feels you. You may seem to be
meyer so com posed; he may not be able
10 see any sign of fear or apprehension,
or even doubt Of your power aud mastery
over him. But the moment he is in
your atmospheric known not what
else to call it than atmosphere-hek knows
you through and through. If you are
afraid, he knows it; and he is also
afraid.
'Don't let q horse know you are
afraid of him; IL you do, he will take
advantage OF you, and surely throw you
off or run away Thus writes another
able slanderer of this much misuuder-
stood and, therefore, much abused
brute.
Now the truth is, the horse will not
wilfully take advantage OF any one or OF
anything under any circumstances. But,
to get back where We started In this ar
ticle. the horse, outside of his grace of
body aud movement, has little else than
his legs and his strength. A mental
bankrupt, and as timid as dove, he 10
ready to use his strength and those four
legs OF his the moment that he has lost
faith in you. He needs q master; tor he
has no mind of his own. He must feel
that you are his master, or, at least,
that you are neither coward or fool. And
if he does not feel this he becomes
frightened at everything-n falling leaf.
bird by the road. bit of paper, any
thing, everything. He is trembling
with fear, for he knows you are also
afraid. And SO, not from any vicious
ness at all, but really because he has NO
rider or master, he runs away. Here NO
begin to see the ground Of AIexander's
greatness, of Cesar's strength, and Ma
poleon . reason for preferring men at the
head of his legions who had mind enough
to control horse without effort, simply