The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-22

sion. Custom-daily custom backed by
compulsion-makes the horse do these
things, nothing else.
The fire. department horse is accus-
toned by training TO run into place at
the sound of a bell, but suppose the
engine is in the street, do you think
he will run to it and get into place?
Not by a long shot. He hasn't been
trained for that.
"As to his reasoning Dower-thats
a hard question TO answer. Just where
instinct leaves off and reasoning power
commences has puzzled greater men
than 1 ever expect to be. 1 feed my
horse candy: he sees me coming and
noses around my pockets. There must
be a certain degree of reasoning there.
He associates me and my pockets with
the sugar and goes after it.
plains horses are born to liberty and
will often die before they will submit
to confinement. But I've broken fifteen
or twenty broncos to shoot cannon, go
through fire. and do all sorts of tricks,
and after they are once broken you
can't scare them. You can drive them
right up to an engine where a domes-
tic horse will shy and they are per-
fectly fearless. Their eyesight is bet
ter. Almost all domestic horses have
defective eyes, and they are the ones
that shy and are afraid of everything.
Plains horses are skittish because they
feel good and want to play. The only
way a horse knows how to play is to
jump and kick his heels. OF course,
if he hits a dashboard it's liable to
brighten him, and then you must look
| Out-but because he runs 1t doesn't
argue that he's vicious.
Let a carriage horse stand idle for
q few days. When he's taken out he
! feels like any one else who has been
| n-.a cd ha and
| jump. and throw up his heels. He's not
| to blame if something happens then
| TO brighten him-the blame rests with
the fools who refused him proper eXer-
else.
There is a deal of theoretical talk
about how a green horse should be
taught. In my opinion, there is only
one way-you do it precisely as you
| teach a little child, in the simplest
| kindest, and most attractive way.
| Take a nervous horse and tie his
| head back by passing a cord across
the jaw and up over the back of the
head; he'll be in a lather in ten min
utes from the pain in the muscles
| where the head joins on the spine.
Then all the whipping in creation
! won't make him do anything.
There is just as much difference in
horses as there is in children; you
can't use the same method with all
| alike; you must study the individual
Take the ponies l am training this
winter. There is Sappho, little beau
| ty, but nervous little devil. When we,
| began to teach her to dance she licked
| all three of us in one day. Did l whip
her? Certainly not. 1 said. She's fright
ened. Take her back to-day and pet
her up a bit; Wen try again to-mor-
! row. She had jerked Otto Foloto, who
was holding the cord, clean off his
feet, and he got up and busted him
self off, as Disguised a man as you'll
! ever see. Dan says he, if you teach
that lady to dance, you'll be a peach
We'll. I've taught her to dance I'M
! til the best of them will have to take
a back seat when she comes in.
Patience, good judgment, patience,
more judgment, and still more pa
! thence, and patience-and that does it.
81 have been torn almost to pieces
| by a horse that was blindly jealous of
J me. remember a big black fellow,
smart as a whip, that l trained for
| certain act. 1 did it alone for a while;
| then l had partner, and / was to
| change horses the last half of the act.
{ l rode my horse into my dressing
room, the other fellow came in on his
| and dismounted, getting on mine. As
! l went to mount the other mans
horse mine caught me by the waist
| and gave me a vicious bite. The EN-
| try was playing, the act was waiting,
| 50 l bound up my waist md rode in.
! AS soon as my horse saw ne he grab
| bed me by the leg and tore a piece
right out. Nor would he ever allow me
| to ride another horse when was around
| I've been Scared all over by horses
whose sole motive was very human
| pique or jealousy"
| whoa, January"
About Whoa, january Yes, that
| was my pony. You see, Raree had a
farm in Ohio, and he went himself to
the Shetland Islands for lot of po-
/ MES. l met him one day in Liverpool
and he said: Had a little foal coming
/ over; if you'll go down and get it you
can have it.
"WellI went and got it and carried
/ it in my arms to the hotel and up to
my room. 1t wasn't more than eigh-
: teen inches high, and the cutest thing
you ever saw. My wife put a lot of
; cotton in the coal box and we kept it
/ there, feeding it from a bottle We
named it January, because that was
the month it was born. Pretty soon it
| could run up and down stairs like a
! dog.
Tom Thumb and Halves were both
/ there, and they plagued the life out OF
the colt until it got ugly and would
chase anybody that annoyed it; then
! IL WOulu SCOOI up STAIRS ike all pos
sessed, One day in the ordinary the
colt was being plagued. The table
was set and dinner ready for twenty
people. He grabbed the tablecloth be-
tween his teeth and started up stairs
pell nell, scattering dishes all along
! the way. Tom Thumb laughed until
! he like to have died, and he and Halves
said they were willing to pay for the
! damages all over again to see the
I devil go up those stairs. But. just the