A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses Part 1

A New Ill.u.s.trated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses.

by J. S. Rarey.

CHAPTER I.

Mr. Rarey's pamphlet first published in Ohio.--Experience of old system.--Compiled and invented new.--Tying up the fore-leg known many years ago, _see_ Stamford Almanack.--Forgotten and not valued.--Reference to Captain Nolan's and Colonel Greenwood's works on horsemans.h.i.+p.--d.i.c.k Christian missed the discovery.--Baucher's plan of laying down a horse explained.--Mademoiselle Isabel's whip-and-spur plan.--Account of the Irish whisperer Dan Sullivan.--Usual modes of taming vicious horses.--Starving.--Physic.--Sleepless nights.--Bleeding.--Biting the ear.--Story of Kentish coachman.--The Ellis system.--Value of the Rarey system as compared with that of ordinary horse-tamers.--Systems of Australia and Arabia compared.--The South American plan explained.--A French plan.--Grisone the Neapolitan's advice.--The discovery of Mr. Rarey by Mr. Goodenough.--Visit to Canada.--To England.--Lord Alfred Paget.--Sir Richard Airey.--System made known to them.--To Mr. Jos. Anderson.--Messrs.

Tattersall.--Sir Matthew Ridley's black horse tamed.--Subscription list of 500 opened.--Stafford tamed.--Description of.--Teaching commenced with Lords Palmerston, Granville, &c.--Cruiser tamed.--History of.--Enthusiastic crowd at Cruiser exhibition.--System approved by the Earl of Jersey and Sir Tatton Sykes.--Close of first subscription list.--Anecdote of Mr. Gurney's colt.--Personal sketch of Mr. Rarey.

Mr. Rarey is a farmer from Ohio, in the United States. Five years ago he wrote the little book which forms the _text_ of the following complete account of his system, with pictorial ill.u.s.trations, which are essential for explaining the means he now employs for subduing the most refractory animals. Without these explanations, it would be extremely difficult for any one who had not enjoyed the advantage of hearing Mr.

Rarey's explanations, to practise his system successfully, or even safely. The original work contains a mere outline of the art, since perfected by five years' further study and practice. The author did not revise his first sketch, for very obvious reasons.

He was living in obscurity, teaching his system for a few dollars in Ohio and Texas. He never taught in the great cities or seabord states of the United States. When he had imparted his art to a pupil, he bound him to secrecy, and presented him with a copy of his pamphlet. He did not dream, then, of becoming the great Lion of the London Season, and realising from English subscribers nearly 20,000_l._ It will be observed, that in the original American edition, the operation of tying up the foot is described in one chapter, and, at an interval of some pages, that of laying a horse down, in another; and that neither the difficulties nor the necessary precautions, nor the extraordinary results, are described with the clearness their importance requires.

Mr. Rarey has now very properly released his subscribers from the contract which bound them to secrecy; and it is now in every point of view important that this valuable system of rendering horses docile and affectionate, fit for hacks or chargers, ladies' pads or harness, or the safe conveyance of the aged, crippled, and sick, should be placed within the reach of the thousands whose business it is to deal with horses, as well as of that large cla.s.s of gentlemen who are obliged to observe economy while keeping up their equestrian tastes. After all, it is to the horse-breeding farmers and grooms to whom Mr. Rarey's art will be of the most practical use.

As it is, enough of the system has oozed out to suggest to the ignorant new means of cruelty. A horse's leg is strapped up, and then the unlearned proceed to bully the crippled animal, instead of--to borrow an expressive Americanism--"to gentle him."

Before entering into the details for practising the Rarey system, it may be interesting to give a sketch of the "facts" that have placed Mr.

Rarey in his present well-deserved position, as an invincible Horse-Tamer, as well as a Reformer of the whole modern system of training horses--a position unanimously a.s.signed to him by all the first hors.e.m.e.n of the day.

Mr. Rarey has been a horse-breaker in the United States from his earliest youth, and had frequently to break in horses five or six years old, that had run wild until that mature undocile age.

At first he employed the old English rough-rider method, and in the course of his adventures broke almost every bone in his body, for his pluck was greater than his science. But he was not satisfied with following old routine; he inquired from the wandering hors.e.m.e.n and circus trainers into their methods (it may be that he was at one time attached to a circus himself), and read every book he could lay his hands on. By inquiry and by study--as he says in one of his advertis.e.m.e.nts--"he thought out" the plan and the principles of his present system.

The methods he uses for placing a colt or horse completely in his power are not absolutely new, although it is possible that he has re-invented and has certainly much improved them. The Russian (_i. e._ Courland) Circus Riders have long known how, single-handed, to make a horse lie down by fastening up one fore-leg, and then with a rope suddenly pulling the other leg from under him. The trick was practised in England more than forty years ago, and forgotten. That no importance was attached to this method of throwing a horse is proved by the fact, that in the works on horsemans.h.i.+p, published during the last twenty years, no reference is made to it. When Mr. Starkey, of Wilts.h.i.+re, a breeder and runner of race-horses,[4-*] saw Mr. Rarey operate for the first time, he said, "Why I knew how to throw a horse in that way years ago, but I did not know the use of it, and was always in too great a hurry!" Lord Berners made nearly the same remark to me. Nimrod, Cecil, Harry Hieover, Scrutator--do not appear to have ever heard of it. The best modern authority on such subjects (British Rural Sports), describes a number of difficulties in breaking colts which altogether disappear under the Rarey system--especially the difficulty of shoeing.

Captain Nolan, who was killed at Balaklava, served in an Hungarian regiment, in the Austrian service, afterwards in our own service in India, and visited Russia, France, Denmark, and South Germany, to collect materials for his work on the "History of Cavalry and on the Training of Horses," although he set out with the golden rule laid down by the great Greek horseman, Xenophon, more than a thousand years ago--"HORSES ARE TAUGHT, NOT BY HARSHNESS, BUT BY GENTLENESS," only refers incidentally to a plan for throwing a horse down, in an extract from Baucher's great work, which will presently be quoted, but attaches no importance to it, and was evidently totally ignorant of the foundation of the Rarey system.

The accomplished Colonel Greenwood, who was equally learned in the _manege_ of the _Haute Ecole_, and skilled in the style of the English hunting-fields, gives no hint of a method which reduces the time for taming colts from months to hours, and makes the docility of five horses out of six merely a matter of a few weeks' patience.

The sporting newspapers of England and America were so completely off the true scent when guessing at the Rarey method, that they put faith in recipes of oils and scents for taming horses.

d.i.c.k Christian--a genius in his way--when on horseback unmatched for patience and pluck, but with no taste for reading and no talent for generalizing, used to conquer savages for temporary use by tying up one fore-foot, and made good water-jumpers of horses afraid of water by making them smell it and wade through it; so that he came very near the Rarey methods, but missed the chain of reasoning that would have led him to go further with these expedients.[5-*]

Mons. Baucher, of Paris (misprinted Faucher in the American edition), the great modern authority in horse-training and elaborate school equitation, under whom our princ.i.p.al English cavalry generals have studied--amongst others, two enthusiastic disciples of Mr. Rarey, Lord Vivian and General Laurenson, commanding the cavalry at Aldershott--admitted Mr. Rarey's system was not only "most valuable,"

but "quite new to him."

After Mr. Rarey had taught five or six hundred subscribers, some of whom of course had wives, Mr. Cooke, of Astley's, began to exhibit a way of making a horse lie down, which bore as much resemblance to Mr. Rarey's system, as Buckstone's or Keeley's travestie of Oth.e.l.lo would to a serious performance by a first-rate tragedian. Mr. Cooke pulling at a strap over the horse's back, was, until he grew, by practice, skilful, more than once thrown down by the extension of the off fore-leg.

Indeed, the proof that the circus people knew neither the Rarey plan, nor the results to be obtained from it, is to be found in the fact, that they continually failed in subduing unruly horses sent to them for that purpose.

A friend of mine, an eminent engineer, sent to Astley's, about two years ago, a horse which had cost him two hundred pounds, and was useless from a habit of standing still and rearing at the corner of streets; he was returned worse rather than better, and sold for forty pounds. Six lessons from Mr. Rarey would have produced, at least, temporary docility.

Monsieur Baucher, in his _Methode d'Equitation_, says, _speaking of the surprise created by the feats_ he performed with trained horses,--"According to some, I was a new 'Carter,'[6-*] taming my horses by depriving them of rest and nourishment: others would have it, that I tied ropes to their legs, and suspended them in the air; some again supposed that I fascinated them by the power of the eye; and part of the audience, seeing my horses (Partisan, Capitaine, Neptune, and Baridan) work in time to my friend Monsieur Paul Cuzent's charming music, seriously argued that the horses had a capital ear for music, and that they stopped when the clarionets and trombones ceased to play, and that the music had more power over the horse than I had. That the beast obeyed an '_ut_' or a '_sol_' or '_staccato_,' but my hands and legs went for nothing.

"Could any one imagine that such nonsense could emanate from people who pa.s.sed for hors.e.m.e.n?

"Now from this, although in some respects the same cla.s.s of nonsense that was talked about Mr. Rarey, it does not seem that any Parisian veterinary surgeon staked his reputation on the efficacy of oils and scents."

M. Baucher then proceeds to give what he calls sixteen "_Airs de Manege_," which reflect the highest credit on his skill as a rational horseman, using his hands and legs. But he proceeds to say--"It is with regret I publish the means of making a horse kneel, limp, lie down, and sit on his haunches in the position called the '_Cheval Gastronomie_,'

or 'The Horse at Dinner.' This work is degrading to the poor horse, and painful to the trainer, who no longer sees in the poor trembling beast the proud courser, full of spirit and energy, he took such pleasure in training.

"To make a horse kneel, tie his pastern-joint to his elbow, make fast a longer line to the other pastern-joint, have this held tight, and strike the leg with the whip; the instant he raises it from the ground, pull at the longeing line to bend the leg. He cannot help it--he must fall on his knees. Make much of the horse in this position, and let him get up free of all hindrance.

"As soon as he does this without difficulty, leave off the use of the longeing line, and next leave both legs at liberty: by striking him on the s.h.i.+ns with the whip, he will understand that he is to kneel down.

"When on his knees, send his head well to the off-side, and, supporting him with the left rein, pull the right rein down against his neck till he falls to the near side; when down at full length, you cannot make too much of him; _have his head held that he may not get up too suddenly_, or before you wish him. You can do this by placing your right foot on the right reins; this keeps the horse's nose raised from the ground, and thus deprives him of the power of struggling successfully against you. Profit by his present position to make him sit up on his haunches, and in the position of the 'Cheval Gastronomie.'"

The difference between this and Rarey's plan of laying down a horse is as great as between Franklin's kite and Wheatstone's electrical telegraph; and foremost to acknowledge the American's merits was M.

Baucher.

So little idea had cavalry authorities that a horse could be trained without severity, that, during the Crimean war, a Mademoiselle Isabel came over to this country with strong recommendations from the French war minister, and was employed at considerable cost at Maidstone for some months in spoiling a number of horses by _her system_, the princ.i.p.al features of which consisted in a new dumb jockey, and a severe spur attached to a whip!

It is true that Mademoiselle Isabel's experiment was made contrary to the wishes and plans of the head of the Cavalry Training Department, the late General Griffiths; but it is not less true that within the last two years influential cavalry officers were looking for an improvement in training horses from an adroit use of the whip and spur.

From the time of Alexander the Great down to the Northumberland Horse-Breaker, there have been instances of courageous men who have been able to do extraordinary things with horses. But they may be divided into two cla.s.ses, neither of which have been able to originate or impart a system for the use of ordinary hors.e.m.e.n.

The one cla.s.s relied and relies on personal influence over lower animals. They terrify, subdue, or conciliate by eye, voice, and touch, just as some wicked women, not endowed with any extraordinary external charms, bewitch and betray the wisest men.

The other cla.s.s rely on the infliction of acute pain, or, stupefaction by drugs, or other similar expedients for acquiring a temporary ascendancy.

In a work printed in 1664, quoted by Nolan, we have a melancholy account of the fate of an ingenious horse-tamer. "A Neapolitan, called Pietro, had a little horse, named Mauroco, doubtless a Barb or Arab, which he had taught to perform many tricks. He would, at a sign from his master, lie down, kneel, and make as many courvettes (springs on his hind-legs forward, like rearing), as his master told him. He jumped over a stick, and through hoops, carried a glove to the person Pietro pointed out, and performed a thousand pretty antics. He travelled through the greater part of the Continent, but unfortunately pa.s.sing through Arles, the people in that 'age of faith,' took him for a sorcerer, and burned him and poor Mauroco in the market-place." It was probably from this incident that Victor Hugo took the catastrophe of La Esmeralda and her goat.

Dan Sullivan, who flourished about fifty years ago, was the greatest horse-tamer of whom there is any record in modern times. His triumph commenced by his purchasing for an old song a dragoon's horse at Mallow, who was so savage "that he was obliged to be fed through a hole in the wall." After one of Sullivan's lessons the trooper drew a car quietly through Mallow, and remained a very proverb of gentleness for years after. In fact, with mule or horse, one half-hour's lesson from Sullivan was enough; but they relapsed in other hands. Sullivan's own account of the secret was, that he originally acquired it from a wearied soldier who had not money to pay for a pint of porter he had drunk. The landlord was retaining part of his kit as a pledge, when Sullivan, who sat in the bar, vowed he would never see a hungry man want, and gave the soldier so good a luncheon, that, in his grat.i.tude, he drew him aside at parting, and revealed what he believed to be an Indian charm.

Sullivan never took any pupils, and, as far as I can learn, never attempted to train colts by his method, although that is a more profitable and useful branch of business than training vicious horses.

It is stated in an article in "Household Words" on Horse-Tamers, that he was so jealous of his gift that even the priest of Ballyclough could not wring it from him at the confessional. His son used to boast how his reverence met his sire as they both rode towards Mallow, and charged him with being a confederate of the wicked one, and how the "whisperer" laid the priest's horse under a spell, and forthwith led him a weary chase among the cross roads, till he promised in despair to let Sullivan alone for ever. Sullivan left three sons: one only practised his art, with imperfect success till his death; neither of the others pretended to any knowledge of it. One of them is to this day a horse-breaker at Mallow.

The reputation of Mr. Rarey brought to light a number of provincial horse-tamers, and, amongst others, a grandson of Sullivan has opened a list under the auspices of the Marquis of Waterford, for teaching his grandfather's art of horse-taming. It is impossible not to ask, why, if the art is of any value, it has not been taught long ago?

In Ireland as in England, the accepted modes of taming a determined colt, or vicious horse, are either by a resolute rider with whip and spur, and violent longeings, or by starving, physic, and sleepless nights. It was by these means combined that the well-known horseman, Bartley the bootmaker, twenty years ago, tamed a splendid thorough-bred horse, that had defied all the efforts of all the rough-riders of the Household Cavalry regiments.

Bleeding a vicious horse has been recommended in German books on equitation. In the family Robinson Crusoe, paterfamilias conquers the quagga by biting its ear, and every farrier knows how to apply a twitch to a horse's ear or nose to secure his quietness under an operation. A Mr. King, some years since, exhibited a learned horse, which he said he subdued by pinching a nerve of its mouth, called "_the nerve of susceptibility_."

The writer in the "Household Words" article, to which I have already referred, tells how "a coachman in Kent, who had been quite mastered by horses, called in the a.s.sistance of a professed whisperer. After his ghostly course the horses had the worst of it for two months, when their ill-humour returned, and the coachman himself immediately darkened his stable, and held what he termed a little conversation with them, which kept them placid till two more months had pa.s.sed. He did not seem altogether to approve of the system, and plainly confessed that it was cruel." Putting shot in the ear is an old stupid and fatal trick of ignorant carters to cure a gibbing horse--it cures and kills him too.

The latest instantaneous system which acquired a certain degree of temporary popularity was that introduced from the western prairies, by Mr. Ellis, of Trinity College, Cambridge, which consisted in breathing into the nostrils of a colt, or buffalo colt, while its eyes were covered. 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,"