Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1904 — TEACHING THE HORSE. [ARTICLE]

TEACHING THE HORSE.

{Learn Anything Hla Mane lea Can Perform. Expert horsemen believe that a horse ’ can be taught to do anything that it is possible for an animal so formed and to be utterly fearless. Thus we know of horses rushing into battle with a fearlessness that is magnificent, although in the beginning of their lives they may have been foolishly timid, shying at everything unusual that happened to be seen In their travels. In order to teach a horse fearlessness he must be accustomed to all sorts of sights and sounds. He must come to know that because something that he sees or hears is unusual it does not follow that it Is harmful, for it is the unusual things that frighten him. The horse is an animal of one idea at a time and is not able to discriminate, so say the men who have made a study of the horse. While he will travel along quietly close by the roar of a train, he may tremble at the flutter of a piece of loose paper flying in the wind. It is not the frightfulness of the object that seems to alarm him, but the unfamiliarity of it. Horse trainers say that the mistakes made in “breaking” and training a colt is that it is too often done in tlie seclusion, of some country road instead of amid the sights and sounds that the animal must necessarily become familiar with later. As soon as the horse becomes familiar with anything and has learned to believe that it will not hurt him he will stand quietly or trot along peacefully, even though all sorts of noises and queer sights are about him. Thus the artillery horse will stand amid the roar of cannons, being used to the noise and not knowing that the sound predicts anguish and death. It is well to accustom a horse to unusual sounds as soon as possible after he is trained for riding or driving. It renders him safe and docile, even though he be a spirited animal. A certain trainer of horses said that an ideal school for horses would contain thrashing machines, pile drivers, steam drills, electric, steam and elevated cars, a band of martial music and a gang of quarrymen blasting rock. A horse that was drilled among such a bedlam as this would indeed prove immune to strange noises. The gentle family horse, petted by man and child, is not always trained to all this, yet he often makes a useful and faithful animal, loved by his owner and evidently making some return of affection.—Detroit Tribune.