Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1859 — Rarey Taming a Vicious Horse. [ARTICLE]

Rarey Taming a Vicious Horse.

[From the London Daily News.

He entered the ring, neighing fearfully, snorting and rushing sometimes at and sometimes away from the professor. Now he pawed the ground with impatience, and then flung out a hind hoof with a force which suggestCu tO “* Hn ‘ 3cr s-l’y ie expediency of keeping at a civil distance- G as e was a perfect lesson, and was watched with intense interest, Mr. Rarey at first approached his intractable pupil slowly, gently, but without fear, lecturing as he went along, and explaining the course of “gentleness” by means of which his proud spirit was soon to be brought to a state of submission. His left hand was on lhe strap, which peeped unobtrusively from the coat pocket, and his right—extended in the.most conciliatory manner, in readiness for the preliminary caress. Cruiser the second looked puzzled, then frightened, reared as if he meditated a sudden visit to the reserved seats, and then stood perfectly motionless. The masters eye was upon him, and his own quailed under the mesmeric influence. In a few seconds Mr. Rarey was at his shoulder, the strap was on his fore leg, and the lesson commenced. The struggle that followed was probably as exciting and extraordinary an exhibition as was ever witnessed in a theatre. There was no sham, no stage trick, no spell, no philter; it was a regular stand up fight between the horse and the man, between strength directed by courage and mere brute force, having only its sheer bone and muscle to depend on. Sometimes the maddened annimal reared, and seemed as if about to crush the Professor, sometimes he sank prone upon his crippled fore leg, with head stretched out, blew up columns of sawdust by the violent respiration from the nostrils. Then he would make another desperate effort to rise, but only to be followed by another and more helpless prostration. He sweated, he panted, he quivered, his skin rose and fell in waves under the strong agony, and his haunches were marked with deep corrugations as he repeated his frantic attempts to break his, to to him, mysterious bonds. But it was of no avail. The tamer all through clung so close to him as to seem a part of himself. He never got excited, never lost temper, never lost a single opportunity of describing to the audience what he was doing and why he did it. His grip and pressure was as slow, regular, gradual, but as inexorable as fate, until, at last, the poor animal surrendered at discretion, stretched himself at length upon the arena, and seemed to experience an exquisite sensation of relief as the reward of his entire and unconditional submission- The panting now gradually ceased, the muscles all became relaxed, and the limbs lay helpless in the Professor’s hands, as he knocked the hoofs together or placed them successively upon his own head, to show how perfect was his confidence in the subjection of the horse. After a few minutes rest the straps were taken off and the pupil allowed to rise, when it was curious to observe that at first he kept his fore legs contracted, under the impression that the terrible ligatures still remained in their places. When he had completely recovered his equilibrium, Mr. Rarey mounted upon his back, and rode him slowly out of the ring, amid loud and general applause. 'James E. Thompson, of New Haven, a lad thirteen years of age, has recently returned from an European tour, including a visit to Paris, where he went alone and unprotected and remained about a week. His schoolmates in the Lovell School of New Haven have honored the young traveler with a public reception, at which addresses xvP"? uu’dc and responded to.