g the ears together, putting shot
in the ears, and all the cruelties hitherto resorted to for subduing
high-spirited and vicious animals (and very often the high-spirited
become, from injudicious treatment, the most vicious), a method of
laying a horse down, tying up his limbs, and gagging, if necessary, his
mouth, which makes him soon feel that man is his superior, and yet
neither excites his terror or his hatred.

These two sections are to be found at pp. 48 and 51 and at pp. 59 and
60, _orig. edit._, under the titles of "How to drive a Horse that is
very wild, and has any vicious Habits," and "How to make a Horse lie
down." It is essential to unite these sections, because, if you put a
well-bred horse in harness with his leg up, without first putting him
down, it is ten to one but that he throws himself down violently, breaks
the shafts of the vehicle, and his own knees.

The following are the sections verbatim, of which I shall afterwards
give a paraphrase, with illustrative woodcuts:--

"Take up one fore-foot and bend his knee till his hoof is bottom
upwards, and nearly touching his body; then slip a loop over his knee,
and up until it comes above the pastern-joint, to keep it up, being
careful to draw the loop together between the hoof and pastern-joint
with a second strap of some kind to prevent the loop from slipping down
and coming off. This will leave the horse standing on three legs; you
can now handle him as you wish, for it is utterly impossible for him to
kick in this position. There is something in this operation of taking up
one foot, that conquers a horse quicker and better than anything else
you can do to him. There is no process in the world equal to it to break
a kicking horse, for several reasons. First, there is a principle of
this kind in the nature of the horse; that by conquering one member, you
conquer, to a great extent, the whole horse.

"You have perhaps seen men operate upon this principle, by sewing a
horse's ears together to prevent him from kicking. I once saw a plan
given in a newspaper to make a bad horse stand to be shod, which was to
fasten down one ear. There were no reasons given why you should do so;
but I tried it several times, and thought that it had a good
effect--though I would not recommend its use, especially stitching his
ears together. The only benefit arising from this process is, that by
disarranging his ears we draw his attention to them, and he is not so
apt to re