Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1909 — FIRE HORSES EASY TO TRAIN [ARTICLE]

FIRE HORSES EASY TO TRAIN

System That Will ffurn an Average Horse Into a Fire Veteran in a Day —-Trielks the Fire Horses Learn For Themselves. A man who didn’t know very much about the mode of training Fire Department horses stood in front of a fire hoiise the other day just as an alarm came in. He saw the big hprses jump from their stalls the moment the gong sounded and take their places beneath the harness. He saw the collars fastened in less time than it takes to tell and noted by the watch he held that the five ton truck was leaving the house within nine seconds after the alarm came in. the fire horse,” he said to a Fire Dethe fire horse,” hesaid to a Fire Department official standing at his side. “It must be a big job to get the right sort of horse in the first place, and a still more difficult task to train him.” “Do you see that old horse”li'auling the crosstown street car by the door?” replied the official. “I can take that car horse or any truck horse yeu will bring me, if he is not vicious, and make a well trained fire horse out of him in a few hours. The system by which we take a green horse and make a veteran out of him is so simple that I have always wished that we could make a good fireman as easily as we can drill a fire horse. “In the first place, the rules of the department- require that a green horse must be between 5 and 8 years old. He, must be sound and not vicious. “The horse comes to the door of the fire house absolutely green; He is even worse than the new fourth grade fireman, for the fireman has been through a epurse of sprouts at the school of instruction and knows a little about what is expected of him. “As the green horse looks inside the door he sees the gleaming brass and shining nickel on the fire apparatus, and directly in front of his eyes the harness is suspended over the pole of the truck or engine. The horse looks around the interior and sees many other things that are new and strange, and it is no wonder that he stands in the door trembling. “This moment is critical. The' driver who knows his business lets the horse stand in the door until he has found that none of the strange things has made a move to molest him, and then he is coaxed gently inside a stall. “Then the driver leaves him for a few minutes and lets him stand until he learns that nothing is going to harm him. When the driver sees the animal’s ears resume their normal ap» pearance he knows that he can go on . with the training. “Then the real training begins. The horse is bridled and the driver leads him by the bit out to his place underneath the harness and the collar is fastened around his neck. This process is tried a few times until the horse goes but without hanging back in the least. “Now a lead Une” about four feet long is fastened around his neck and as the chain across the front of his stall drops the driver steps toward the horse’s place under the harness, and the animal now goes willingly. He is led out by this strap maybe forty or fifty times until he begins to learn what is expected of him. “Up to this time the gong hasn’t been rung, and now the driver sets out to make him understand that when the gong rings he is expected to move. A man is posted at each side of the stall and one at every other avenue of escape. The driver gets behind him with a whip and when the gong rings and the stall chain drops he gives the horse a cut over the flank with the whip. “This is so unexpected that the animal gives a snort and jumps forward. He looks both ways, but there is a man on guard who raises his hand. The horse sees that there is no place he can go except right under the harness where he has been led all the time. He goes there and the man in front clamps the collar around his neckneck before he can make another move. “It may be necessary to persuade the horse to move by means of the whip across the flank a few times, but Inside of a day any green horse can be thoroughly trained so that the next morning at the stroke of the gong he will take his place as promptly as a veteran. This one day’s training Increases the value of the horse just about SIOO. The city buys most of the Fire Department horses at $250 each. "The average life of the fire horse is only about ten years. It is a sad commentary on the manner in which the city treats the fire horse that at the end of the time he is almost a wreck, good for nothing but pulling a street car or junk wagon. I think the time has come when some humane Mayor will decide that ft will pay to have a far mto which all the horses owned by the city can be sent for a vacation, such as the other members of the fire, pollcs, street cleaning and various other city departments get. “The number of horses killed In the service every year Is amazing. You know there Is a rule that If an accident Is unavoidable the Fire' Department must take the brunt of it. That’s why the drivers send so many horses into elevated pillars and all manner of obstructions in an effort to prevent damage to some other vehicle or to a person who gets in the way c the apparatus.”—New York Sun