ponchos, or cloaks, and, having
girthed on him one of their heavy demi-piqued saddles, from which it is
almost impossible to be dislodged, thrust a curb-bit, capable of
breaking the jaw with one tug, into the poor wretch's mouth, mount him
with a pair of spurs with rowels six inches long, and ride him over the
treeless plains until he sinks exhausted _in a fainting state_. But
horses thus broken are almost invariably either vicious or stupid; in
fact, idiotic. There is another milder method sometimes adopted by these
Pampas horsemen, on which, no doubt, Mr. Rarey partly founded his
system. After lassoing a horse, they blind his eyes with a poncho, tie
him fast to a post, and girth a heavy saddle on him. The animal
sometimes dies at once of fright and anger: if not, he trembles, sweats,
and would, after a time, fall down from terror and weakness. The Guacho
then goes up to him, caresses him, removes the poncho from his eyes,
continues to caress him; so that, according to the notion of the
country, the horse becomes grateful and attached to the man for
delivering him from something frightful; and from that moment the
process of training becomes easy, and, with the help of the long spurs,
is completed in a few days. This plan must spoil as many horses as it
makes quiet, and fail utterly with the more nervous and high-spirited;
for the very qualities that render a horse most useful and beautiful,
when properly trained, lead him, when unbroken, to resist more
obstinately rough violent usage.

In a French newspaper article on Mr. Rarey's system, it is related that
a French horse-breaker, in 1846, made a good speculation by purchasing
vicious horses, which are more common in France than in England, and
selling them, after a few days' discipline, perfectly quiet. His remedy
lay in a loaded whip, freely applied between the ears when any symptom
of vice was displayed. This expedient was only a revival of the method
of Grisone, the Neapolitan, called, in the fifteenth century, the
regenerator of horsemanship, predecessor of the French school, who
says--"In breaking young horses, put them into a circular pit; be very
severe with those that are sensitive, and of high courage; beat them
between the ears with a stick." His followers tied their horses to the
pillars in riding-schools, and beat them to make them raise their
fore-legs. We do not approve of Grisone's maxims at the present day in
print, but we leave our horses too much to