The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-08

Mr.. Melville, after a lfeti me spent in
teaching horses, has matured a conviction
that the horse has no intelligence what
ever.
Some horses are more teachabe ,her
Others, Mr.. Melville explains. mot because
they have more intelligence, but because
they are Drawer.
-The first step one takes in training trick
horses Is to get their confidence Onca
a horse learns that anything you want
him to do will not hurt him and will bring
him bit OF carrot after it is over you can
begin 10 teach him things.
"A low grade horse, a panicky. cowardly
horse, can never be taught at all. SO for
this work we have TO use thoroughbreds
which have not made good on the trotting
and running tracks.
They have nerve and spirit enough 10 20
through with things they don't understand
simply because they know that the man
who Is training them will not let them get
hurt. They don't think about 1t at all.
They are perfectly mechanical.
Now in this show the first thing to teach
the horses Is to 60 through their own
mannuvres. take them in squads of six.
and the boys lead them.
Then we put the riding pads on them
and the boys get up on the pads Will the
horses go through the same manpuyres
that they have learned without the boys in
their backs? Never in the world It's
all different to them.
Those boys up there make 1t an en-
tirely new thing. When they get used
to the weight Of the boys and then to the
sight OF seeing the boys on the horses ahead
of them the manuuvres come back to them
little. but very slowly.
Then the girls have To get up there, and
whoopee!-"the fool horses are all at sea
again They can't remember tning.
They haven't been taught to go through
programme with 1uttering skirts and things
above them, and they won't do t.
$50 it's begin all over again. Then
with two groups Of six trained you nave
TO teach the two groups to work together
, and then with a third squad, and finally
with the fourth. Each step means that You
have got to 20 clear back 10 the beginning
and work through the rehearsal Just as
slowly and carefully as you did at the very
first.
aThe girls? oh, they're all right. Not
one OF these girls ever stood on horses
back before. and they're a mighty spirited
lot Of girls or they wouldn't take the JOB,
But they're doing better than i expected
"A great lot
rehearsal barn has been built at tho
very back of the Streets of India site, under
the famous tin Himalayas, in Luna Eark
II is about hundred feet square, and az
one side Of il l6-foot tank has been punt
elrnost as big as the barn itself This tank
Is rooted over and is filled with warm water
which Ia kept warm by jets of steam.
Besides training the horseback ballet
Mr.. Melville has to get ready troop OF DIV
ina cavalry horses, which will swim 90-toot
river OF real water on the Hippodrome
sta ge. and take troop Of soldiers charging
into the battle of Andersonville THIS
part of his job is comparatively easy. II
takes but a very little while for good horse
to learn that warm water will not hurt him
and that it is as easy to swim as to walk
But the girls from Broadway, who have
never been on horse before; or on any
,oadastaI more unstable than the midnight
payements Of the White Light district
they are a very serious lot OF girls when
they get up on one Of Mr.. Melville's squads
of unbroken trick horses. The expires
sion which decorates their countenances T.
comes over the faces Of a lot Of Jolly naidens
who have set forth on yachting party
after they havo met the rollers outside
the Hook Verv few have yet been scared
out of the ehJr.