legs are all
safe for your friendly caresses; don't spare them, and speak to him all
the time.

If he has hitherto resisted shoeing, now is the time for handling his
fore and hind legs; kindly, yet, if he attempts to resist, with a voice
of authority. If he is a violent, savage, confirmed kicker, like
Cruiser, or Mr. Gurney's gray colt, or the zebra, as soon as he is down
put a pair of hobbles on his hind-legs, like those used for mares during
covering. (Frontispiece of Zebra.) These must be held by an assistant on
whom you can depend; and passed through the rings of the surcingle. With
his fore-legs tied, you may usefully spend an hour, in handling his
legs, tapping the hoofs with your hand or hammer--all this to be done in
a firm, measured, soothing manner; only now and then, if he resist,
crying, as you paralyze him with the ropes, "_Wo ho!_" in a determined
manner. It is by this continual soothing and handling that you establish
confidence between the horse and yourself. After patting him as much as
you deem needful, say for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, you may
encourage him to rise. Some horses will require a good deal of helping,
and their fore-legs drawing out before them.

It may be as well to remark, that the handling the limbs, of colts
particularly, requires caution. A cart colt, tormented by flies, will
kick forward nearly up to the fore-legs.

If a horse, unstrapped, attempts to rise, you may easily stop him by
taking hold of a fore-leg and doubling it back to the strapped position.
If by chance he should be too quick, don't resist; it is an essential
principle in the Rarey system, never to enter into a contest with a
horse unless you are certain to be victorious.

In all these operations, you must be calm, and not in a hurry.

Thus, under the Rarey system, all indications are so direct, that the
horse must understand them. You place him in a position, and under such
restraint, that he cannot resist anything that you chose to do to him;
and then you proceed to caress him when he assents, to reprove him when
he _thinks_ of resisting--resist, with all his legs tied, he
cannot--repeated lessons end by persuading the most vicious horse that
it is useless to try to resist, and that acquiescence will be followed
by the caresses that horses evidently like.

[Illustration: The Horse tamed.]

The last instance of Mr. Rarey's power was a beautiful gray mare, which
had been fourteen years in the band o