RAREY, THE HORSE'S MASTER AND FRIEND   - 4

SOME GUESSES AS TO HIS METHOD.  With all the praise of Mr. Rarey, there came also the attempt to imitate and to teach what he was teaching. One of these imitators was so bold that Mr. Rarey authorized the Messrs. Tattersall to pay one thousand guineas to any man who could satisfy them that he was able to teach the Rarey method of horse-taming unless he had first learned it from Mr. Rarey. This offer brought some amusing claims. A. V. D. Way, a German who was teaching modern languages in Dublin, wrote:

"Having seen Mr. Rarey's letter, these lines are to state that that gentleman's secret consists in looking sharply into the eyes of the horse to be tamed and giving him some bread or other soft eatable, moistened with the tamer's own sweat. He looks sharply into the eyes of the horse because the horse cannot bear the brilliancy of the human eye, seeks to avoid the same and becomes by this manner afraid of the tamer, and begins to become tamer and tamer. He gives him some bread or other things moistened with sweat in order to make him do everything he likes, even to follow him like a dog, which the horse does as soon as he has eaten something having the flavor of the tamer's sweat. It is possible that Mr. Rarey employs but one of these two named, but that can be no reason why the promised thousand guineas should not be paid to me.   I knew this secret these twenty-five years and having, therefore, not learned it from Mr. Rarey, either directly or indirectly, I hope and trust I will bear from you by return post. Pardon me this trouble, gentlemen, and believe me your humble ob'd't servant.

                                                                            A. V. D. Way, from Germany.

"P. S. It strikes me that Mr. Rarey may say or think some words in using the above, which words nobody might be able to guess, done in order to avoid the payment of the 1000 guineas, but these words or other things are of no effect and can be omitted.

A. V. D. Way."

Another letter, written from the Bristol Coffee House, ran:

"Believing that I have discovered Mr. Rarey’s method of taming horses, I have taken the liberty of communicating with you upon the subject, and of course, if I am correct, laying claim to the offered reward. If I am right, it is neither more nor less than the use of magnifying spectacles, placed over the eyes of the animal so as to terrify him with the apparent immensity of objects. I have been led into this belief from the fact of my often having seen horses in the Crimea brought to a sudden stand and exhibit great symptoms of terror at sight of a camel, and the well known retentiveness of memory in the horse would assist in strengthening me in my belief. Mr. Rarey's remark, as reported, about Cruiser being about to have been deprived of sight also is an additional reason, because Mr. Rarey's audience would at once have seen the inutility of depriving an animal of the only organ through which a wholesome and yet human dread could be imparted. Awaiting the honor of your reply (prevent the publication of this idea, if it should but slightly differ from Mr. Rarey's mode) I am, gentlemen, your humble, ob’d’t servant,

                                                                                  N. Corringsby."

The only excuse for the prevalence of any mystery about Mr. Rarey's method of training horses was his effort, in the earlier days of his career, to protect himself financially. He gave lessons for a fee and sold a little book of instructions and required every one who bought a book to pledge himself to keep the book private, not to let anybody read it and, in handling horses, to prevent anybody from learning the secret and not to instruct anybody in his art. Later, when his purposes had been served, he publicly released everybody from the pledge and was glad to have the rule of kindness everywhere proclaimed and practiced.

 

 

A Letter from Lord Palmerston. [Click to see full-size]
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A Letter from Lord Dufferin. [Click to see full-size]
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In his earlier study of the nature of the horse, Mr. Rarey observed that the animal acts upon knowledge received through his senses, seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling; that he uses the nose as human beings do the hand to touch and feel every object that is new to him and determine whether or not it is something to be feared. In his boyhood, Mr. Rarey once turned a team of driving horses into a lot, in which there were two or three stumps, on one of which he had thrown a buffalo robe. The first horse, seeing the robe, was frightened. He ran to a point as far away from the robe as he could get and, with head extended, walked around and around the stump, each time getting a little nearer, until he could touch the robe with his nose. On the first contact, he jumped back but, seeing that it did not move, he touched it again, finally seizing it with his teeth and tossing it up and then jumping back again. After learning that the robe could not harm him, the horse seized the robe and dragged it about the lot. That was the boy's first lesson in the nature of the horse, but it was most valuable. It was the foundation stone of his whole theory. So, in his lectures he declared that the only way to tame or to train a horse is to work with, and not against, his intelligence, "for the horse has intelligence and every good trait of character which, if cultivated, will make him kind, docile and gentle." The horse must become acquainted with the person or object before he can have confidence, and his only means to acquaintanceship are the senses. So, in coming into the presence of a strange horse, Mr. Rarey approached slowly, spoke gently, and stroked him lightly and kindly. Having established friendship with the horse, he proceeded to prove to the animal that he was master. For this purpose he used two straps and a surcingle. One strap he buckled around the fetlock, raising one front foot; then he adjusted the surcingle around the horse's body, fastened the second strap, with a running loop, to the other foreleg, passing the end through the surcingle and held it in his hand. Thus, at the desired moment, he brought the horse to his knees and then to a lying posture. There were times when this was done with great difficulty, but firmness, courage and kindness always won sooner or later; and when the horse recognized that his friend was also his master, there was no further trouble. The muscles of the animal's legs relaxed, and the trainer's head was as safe at the horse's heels as it would have been on a downy pillow. Of course, there was nothing in the invention of the straps or in the recumbent posture, except that no other practical mode had been discovered, at once and lastingly to subdue the force and stubbornness of the animal, without a violent contest which must always irritate, frighten and perhaps ruin the most gentle subject. Replying to the charge that he used drugs, magic and witchcraft, Mr. Rarey, in one of his lectures, said: "The absurdity of this notion is apparent when we consider that, if the horse could be tamed by any of these methods, we could apply them with the same efficacy upon children---upon the human family. If any man tells you that he has a recipe for taming horses, try it upon yourself and judge of its effect upon the horse. If you are not knocked to the ground by the potency of the drug, then believe me it will have no more effect upon the horse." Mr. Rarey did not claim to be able, in a single lesson, to redeem a horse forever from vicious ways. What he did do was to indicate beyond all possibility of doubt the true mode of treatment. He had to leave to others, by constant and patient repetition, to lead the once unruly and evil-minded horse to that constant and kindly service of which, as he believed, every animal is capable.
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