red. But although on some animals this seemed to produce a soothing
effect, on others it totally failed.

There can be very little doubt that most of the mysterious
"horse-whisperers" relied for their power of subduing a vicious horse
partly on the special personal influence already referred to, and partly
on some one of those cruel modes of intimidating the animal. It has been
observed that idiots can sometimes manage the most savage horses and
bulls, and conciliate the most savage dogs at first sight.

The value of Mr. Rarey's system consists in the fact that it may be
taught to, and successfully practised by, a ploughboy of thirteen or
fourteen for use on all except extremely vicious and powerful horses.

It requires patience--it requires the habit of dealing with horses as
well as coolness; but the real work is rather a matter of skill than
strength. Not only have boys of five or six stone become successful
horse-tamers, but ladies of high rank have in the course of ten minutes
perfectly subdued and reduced to death-like calmness fiery blood-horses.

Therefore, in dealing with Mr. Rarey's plan we are not wasting our time
about a trick for conquering these rare exceptions--incurably-savage
horses--but considering the principles of a universally applicable
system for taming and training horses for man's use, with a perfection
of docility rarely found except in aged pet horses, and with a rapidity
heretofore quite unknown.

The system of Arabia and Australia are the two extremes. In Australia,
where the people are always in a hurry, the usual mode of breaking in
the bush horses is _to ride them quiet_; that is, to let the man fight
it out with the horse until the latter gives in; for the time, at any
rate. The result is, that nine-tenths of the Australian horses are
vicious, and especially given to the trick of "buck-jumping." This vile
vice consists in a succession of leaps from all-fours, the beast
descending with the back arched, the limbs rigid, and the head as low
down between the legs as possible. Not one horseman in a hundred can sit
three jumps of a confirmed buck-jumper. Charles Barter, who was one of
the hardest riders in the Heythrope Hunt, in his "Six Months in Natal,"
says, "when my horse began buck-jumping I dismounted, and I recommend
every one under the same circumstances to do the same."

The Guachos on the South American Pampas lasso a wild horse, throw him
down, cover his head with one of their