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Article 2: Introduction by Prof. Jesse Beery

IMPORTANT FACTS

 

In this Introductory Course, I am going to give you some very important facts about horses. I say important facts, because my experience has taught me that they are important, and must be applied in the training of every horse. I have made such a thorough study of bad habits, in horses, that I not only know how to cure them, but I know the causes of all the different habits, and, in many cases, this is just as important as knowing the cure for them, as I will explain later.

 

First, let me tell you how I have the whole subject of horse training systematized. I have all kinds of horses classified as to the shape of their heads. I tell you, in a later lesson, how to determine the natural disposition of any colt or horse by looking at its head. When I say disposition, I mean its natural inclinations, or, in other words, how it is likely to act under different circumstances.

 

   Certain marks about the head indicate a certain mode of resistance, which is characteristic of all horses having heads with similar marks. For instance, if you have a horse with a head shaped like the one on page 5 (Figure 1) he will resist you in a manner entirely different from the one with a head like that in Figure 2, page 8.

 

   The bulge, just below the line of the eyes and the heavy jowl, or throat latch, in Figure 1, indicate that he is willful and stubborn. When trying to break him of some habit, he will resist you by lying down or sullenly standing while you try to force him. When once maddened, his mind becomes inactive, his senses blunted and he seems to have no feeling whatever.

 

NOTICE THE BIG DIFFERENCE

   Now, look at the head in Figure 2. The eyes are large and set far out, both to the side of the head and forward, and the furrows, or wrinkles in the forehead between the eyes, indicate that the horse has a nervous disposition and that he is ambitious and determined. If he has not been educated to sights and sounds, any unfamiliar object, or sudden noise, will frighten him and cause him to jump sideways, or, if the object is behind him, he will leap straight ahead. He acts through fear and nervousness and since he is easily frightened, he is likely to develop the habits of shying and running away. If you hold him in, when he attempts to run away, or if anything comes in contact with his body, he will try to kick himself loose. He will resist the harness, or anything that tends to limit- his freedom, and will fight hard from the very beginning. Where the other horse allowed you to do all the work, this one will do the work himself and you need only to control his movements. Although this horse fights harder than the other, he does not resist as long, and, when he does submit, he gives up completely.

 

THEY MUST BE HANDLED DIFFERENTLY

   I just give you this illustration to emphasize the fact that horses have different dispositions, and each of them must be handled differently. You must understand your horse’s disposition, if you want to train him right. If you don’t you are apt to do the wrong thing, or else the right thing at the wrong time, which is just as fatal to success as to do the wrong thing.

 

   Since all horses do not resist in the same way, you cannot think of avoiding the wrong things and always doing the right, if you do not understand the disposition of each particular horse you are to handle. You must know that what causes one colt, or horse, to act a certain way might cause another to act just the opposite.

 

During all my years on the road, giving public exhibitions, 1 never attempted to handle a single horse without first sizing him up, and looking at his head, from both a side and front view, so that I would know exactly how to handle him. As a result, I never tackled a horse that I did not succeed in training.