Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1890 — VICIOUS HORSES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VICIOUS HORSES.

SOME SPECIMEN LESSONS SHOWINC riOW THEY ARE TAMED. The Bight Cue of the Word “Who*,” and the Advantage* of Throwing a Hone In Order to Teach Him. Tbe accompanying pictures represent some scenes in the work or Oscar R. Gleason, the horso professor, the Rarey of these days. He has been giving lessons in New York, says the Sun, and on the night when this particular exhibition was given the first horse brought in for Mr. Gleason to tackle was a kicker. His owner wanted to use him with a buggy for his family, but the animal didn’t care to have anything to do with a buggy except to smash it with his hind feet and then ruu away with the pieces. The horse was good looking. He was brought into the tanbark enclosure with only a halter and the harness shown in the first picture. Mr. Gleason said his plan was tothrow the horse to the ground. He stood on the nigh side and held in his right hand a rope which passed under the surcingle down to the fore leg, as represented in the drawing. Mr. Gleason pulled on this rope. It drew the

horse's foot up to his body; then he took hold of the halter with his left hand and palled the horse's bead around to him. As he did so he placed his right elbow against the animal’s side and sang out: “Lie down.” The beast was scared at first by this unusual treatment The pulling up of his fore leg hurt just a little and he manifested his disapproval of the necessity of standing upon three legs by fighting and trying to kick. This opposition lasted some three minutes. ’ Mr. Gleason held to his head, and kept it yanked around, and at last the astonished brute went down. Theu Mr. Gleason let him get up, and repeated the performance several times, always using the command “Lie dowD, lie down, sir!” as he pulled upon the rope and the halter. Here is how the horse looked when he was downed. But this was only the first step. Horses have no reasoning faculties beyond the limits of their experience. It is only through an act that something may be impressed upon them. This horse had had his own way with his owner and ■With everybody until Mr. Gleason had taken him in hand. He had contracted the bad habit of kicking; he had kicked viciously wheuever anyone tried to command his services, and by kicking he kept himself free. The horse knows this, and he knows it is a power. But here comes a man who by a harness device upon his fore leg succeeds in throwing him no matter how much he kicks. The horse appreciates this, and he realises that this new man has deprived him of his former power. The conceit is taken out of him; he begins to think that the man is his master. This Accomplished, Mr. Gleason’s next move is

to get the horse to obey the reins and run about without kicking. It was just a little difficult to get the reins in place on the horse in this experiment, but when it was done Mr. Gleason cracked his whip and sang out to the horse to go ahead. He did go ahead; he ran so fast that Mr. Gleason had to make his long legs move mighty quick to keep up with the running beast. Then suddenly th v horse lifted his heels and began kicking savagely. Instantly Mr. Gleason pulled on the rope leading to the fore leg and calling out: “Take care there, sirjj’ brought the kicker to his kuces. That fall, following after hts attempted kicking. and a number of other fails coming after other attempts to kick, taught the horse that It was not proper to kick, that Just as certainly ns he kicked he would be tumbled to the ground. It took the trainer some twenty minutes to teach the horse that it was wrong to kick, and that an Attennu to kick would be followed by a forced fall. In his management of the borse Mr. Gleason punished him only for the fault of kicking. The result was that finally the animal saw fit to run around the tanbark quietly aud iiood naiuredly. Tbe spectators looked on with interest, but the owner was the most interested. A boy was called up to try to drive tbe subdued horse. The lad took the reins and everything was all right. Then the owner tried ft. and, for the first time, had no difficulty in managing the horse. Another horse was brought in. This was one that was easily frightened by borsos and strange objects. His sire and dam bad givea him good blood, but his early training had been defective. The slightest strange object frightened him, and it wae not safe to drive him anywhere. When be was brought to the tanbark Mr. Glesaon pat on a peculiar MMnter ii ‘-f.

bridle of his own device, and drove him about as-fast as he could follow him. Mr. Gleason earned a long snapping whip, and first taught the horse the meaning of the word “Whoa.” This, he thinks, is the greatest command in horsemanship. As he drove the animal around, stopping here and there before the boxes of the spectators, he said: “It is the habit of almost every person, when to use the word ‘Whoa’ contin-

ually. But I want to say that you should never use the word except when you want your horse to stop. If you are driving along a street and you come to a crossing or a bad place, and you wish your horse to slack up in speed use this language: ‘Steady, there, my boy.’ But when you wish him to stop then speak out sharply and firmly, ‘Whoa!’ If you will practice this in driving you will have yous horse in two weeks so.tbat he will understand every command that you give him. You must never give many meanings to one word. You must never lie to your horse or deceive him. You do deceive him if, when you want him merely to slacken in speed you say ‘Whoa,’ and then later when you want him to stop and stand still you say‘Whoa.’ How can a horse understand just what you want of him if this is the systemyou pursue? Never say ‘Whoa’ unless you mean it, and when you say It, "see"-that the horse stops.” Mr. Gleason started the horse around, and drilled him on the true import of the command, ‘Whoa!’ Beginning on his fright lesson, he said: “You must make vour horse understand by examination and experience that the things liable to frighten are really harmless. You must be sure not to whip him for being frightened. Always let your horse face the object of fear, and when frightened remember that the slower you move your horse the more power you have over him. There are times when letting a horse trot Is almost as bad as letting him run away.”

Two attendants then came into the tanbark enclosure. One carried an open umbrella, the other a bass drum. While Mr. Gleason drove the horse along, the attendant with the umbrella loomed up before tbe horse and flaunted the umbrella in the animal’s face. It scared the brute and he started to plunge. The instant the trainer saw Hie horse tremble with fear he snapped his whip sharply and shouted “Whoal” because neither this nor any other horse can think of two things at once. The animal at once halted and stood stock stiU. “You see,” said Mr. Gleason, “that the horse is distracted by the umbrella, so I distract him from that distraction by the crack of the whip and the command ‘Whoa.’ The horse stands there looking at the flaunted umbrella. It is some distance from him, and though it is being waved vigorously, he sees that it does not hurt him. Now I have the man with tbe umbrella come nearer. He waves it more fiercely. See, the horse is just a little frightened. He—“Whoal Whoa!” and crack, snap, whack, goes the whip as the tamer breaks in on his lecture to call the horse from the scare that the approach of the umbrella had caused: It was a splendid picture of how a man with only his little human strength can overcome a frightened horse about to rear and jump off with all his brute force. The muscles of the shapely neck quivered, the long body heaved, the tendons of the legs stuck out, and the big four-footed beast hesitated in his sudden, fierce demonstration of superior force, and then, trembling under the tension of unexpended effort, became quieter, and at last absolutely quiet. He stood rooted in the tracks; the umbrella was shaking before his eyes, Gleason

held the reins loose, and the spectators burst into applause. And now up and down the tanbark the trainer drives tbr horse. Tbe fellow with the umbrella runs before the horfie and by his side and shakes the umbrella before his eyor and_by his side, but it has no effect. "Bring on the drum,” exclaims Mr. Gleason. When the boy beats it, the brute rears a little, but the whip snap* and the word '‘Whoal” brings the horse to his calmer senses. Ha makes up his mind Anally that neither the umbrella or the dram can hart him. Them they

throw newspapers in his face. Most horses would run away if on a country road, or anywhere, in fact, a bundle ol loose papers were thrown at them. Tbil horse, however, did not get the chancq to run away. When the first papers wore flung at him the word “Whoa!” was sufficient alone, and Gleason did no| have to snap the whip once. Then they tied a string of bells around the horse’i belly and a string of tin pans to his taij and set him going. At first the beast acted as if he wanted to kick and tear about, but tbe exclamation “Whoa!” calmed him. Then Gleason fired off q gun over the animal’s head. It startled the spectators and made the horse jump. “Whoa!" quieted him, however, and as. ter a few more discharges of the weapon the horse stood still without even the reassuring word. This was all pretty good, but Mr. Gleason said he could “go it one better.” He took off the head harness, and, calling up his attendants, they went through the noisy perform* ance without the animal being in ths slightest degree disturbed. The picture, “They can't scare him,” shows how it is done.

GETTING A KICKER DOWN.

TEACHING A KICKER TO SUBMIT TO REINS.

THEY CAN'T SCARE HIM.

WHIRLING A HORSE THAT OBJECTS TO HARNESS.

WON’T RUN FROM POWER CRACKER.