THE HORSE, AS COMRADE AND FRIEND THE HORSE, AS COMRADE AND FRIEND "FESTINA LENTE" BY EVERARD R. CALTHROP, m.inst.c.e., m.i.mech.e Chevalier oj the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus. Member 0/ Council 0/ the National Pony Society, and of the .'Irab Hone Society. THIRD EDITION LONDON : HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW 1921 ^h I 1911 OCT UbiG;Vl Rohan in 1901, aged 10, with Keith, Iris and Betty up Rohan in 1914, aged 23, with Betty up, and Sam \_To back frontispiece £ a — 5j z X o CO To The Dear Memory of ROHAN My old Arab Stallion- One OF THE Noblest Horses God ever madb and My Best and Truest Comrade and Friend CONTENTS Foreword Chap. I. Basic Principles of Handling AND Training II 11. Bringing the Wild Horse tip FROM Pasture 17 III. The First Handling 23 IV. The Second Handling 39 V. Training to Saddle 61 VI. Handling in the Stable 71 VII. Training for Riding 89 VIII. Training for Riding {Con.) 101 IX. Training for Riding {Con.) 111 X. Training for Riding {Con.) 125 XI. Training for Jumping . 143 XII. Training for Driving . 159 XIII. The Most Wonderful Thing IN the World 179 XIV. Two Mysteries 217 Afterword . 239 ; LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Rohan, aged 10 and 23 - - - - Pre-Frontispiece EoHAN, from the Water Colour Portrait by the Author FronUspiece face page \ , To EoHAN AND Marpegokby, 1916 ; and Eohan in 1906 - 14 KoHAN in 1906 ; with some of his in descendants 1912 ; and with one of his sons ------ 15 Father on Father, and Son on Son ; Playmates in the Paddock 36 " " Playing at Wild Injuns ; Betty on Kitty VIII., AND Iris on Eohan 37 Legstkap and its Application, Figs. I. and II. - - 46 How to Handle a Foal 52 and 53 Marzouk in 1906 64 FiTZ, a battle-scarred hero, who served through the Palestine and Senussi Campaigns - - - - 65 Paris Omnibus, with team of three Percheron stallions and six Percheron stallions pulling 20 tons up a heavy gradient 80 Heavy Draught Percheron Stallions in Paris - - 81 Gladys Calthrop and Skewbald Filly - - 92 Marladi and Swan ; Eohan's Last Gift and the two Eomarsandos - - 93 Marpbgorby and Musket at Play - - 104 and 105 Eo-Akbar's Antics 120 EoTUNDA I. AND EoTUNDA II. ; sisters who could not be parted -------- 121 Marsanda as a Chestnut Filly and a Grey Mare - 136 Mabsanda's Chestnut Filly Foal, and Eohan's Last Gift, with training headstalls ----- 137 Jumping an Invisible Fence 150 Is this a Unique Occurrence ? ----- 151 Teaching Eosanda II. to jump in hand - - - 152 Eosanda II. (13 h. 3 in.) jumping 6 ft. and 6 ft. 3 in. - 153 eotund and the boy scouts . - - . 192 The Zebra Striping op Foals 193 The Birth of a Foal - . - - 200, 201 and 212 EOTUND II. AND LyNTON, WITH SaM Up - - - 213 The Water where Windermere Died ; Mafia and her filly foal, Makmafia ------- 238 The Black "Guardian Angel" Pabachutb - - 239 LOWTHER, Penrith, 5th November, 1917. Dear Mr. Calthrop, I have read your book, which I now return, and deeply regret that I have taken so long to do it, but I have been so very busy. I have now read every word of it, and entirely agree with practically all that you have said. Also I entirely agree with your views. As regards what I might term " instantaneous breaking " : to anybody who really under- stands animals, like yourself, it is perfectly obvious and I quite agree with all you say. I knew Sample and Galvayne and all those breaking men very well. Sample was really by far the best of them ; Galvayne was merely an imitation, and a moderate one, of Sample. I hope that you will succeed with your publication, for it is certainly deserving of every success, as it is full of merit, and the principles and everything on which you found your system is, in my humble and probably valueless opinion, perfectly right. I am perfectly certain that no real cure can be made mth a savage animal, except of a temporary character, in which the owner or user of the horse has not made and given the The Horse, as Comrade and Friend animal that he is breaking absolute and com- plete confidence and justice. Horses and dogs are like childi^en and at times want correct- ing, but correcting an animal that makes a mistake when it knows it is wrong is a totally different thing from abusing and knocking an animal about, such as one often sees. I have seen some of the much-advertised methods of breaking the wildest of remounts. It is true that they are broken, to an extent, but it is their spirit that is broken not their nature or tempers altered and calmed. But the result is, I suppose, satisfactory to the breaker, but it can only be—and is—tem- porary. However, you go into such detail and so very admirably that it would be im- pertinent to make remarks on what evidently you understand better than I do. Thanking you for having allowed me to see the book before it is published, and again wishing it every possible success. Believe me. Yours truly, ^signed) Lonsdale. FOREWORD COME of a family, who for some hundreds I of years have been notable for an exceed- ing love of their horses, and for their somewhat remarkable influence over them. No records remain as to the exact nature of the methods of horsecraft employed by my forebears, but my own success in my younger days in handhng and taming all sorts of diffi- cult, tricky and vicious horses—sometimes quite unapproachable by other men—and of inducing them to lead subsequently virtuous and blameless lives, makes me believe that my powers are hereditary, and that, therefore, my ancestors have probably worked much on the same hues as I have myself. Owing to age and growing infu-mities, I am no longer able to handle, tame and ride wild horses as I once could ; but my love for all horses remains as strong as ever, and, thank God, so does their love for me. The horse that is your friend never lets you know that he thinks you old. By a coincidence, I recently received almost together several letters from Yorkshire and Essex, in which I was asked to give advice as to the best methods of breaking horses Foreword three and four j^ears' old, which, on account of the war, and the scarcity of men, had received no kind of handUng and were extremely wild.* It has occurred to me that this may be the case with young horses in many parts of the country, and that, therefore, it might be of use to many owners, and save horses much mistreatment at the hands of incompetent grooms, if I could put in writing, in a way to be generally understood, the principles of my own methods of training. I have seen so much mishandling and brutal treatment of horses, by men who do not understand them, that I should be glad if anything I could ^vrite might perchance save a few horses from such wrong-doing. My two sons being in the Army, helping to tame the Huns, and my first grand- sons having only just arrived on this planet, it is unlikely that I shall have the privilege of imparting my methods to these youngsters by personal instruction ; and it has, therefore, been an additional inducement to wTite this little book, in order to hand down such special knowledge of horsecraft, as I possess, to my own descendants. I have been in many parts of the world and have seen and stu.died many methods of breaking, training, and taming horses, includ- ing those of quite celebrated tamers, such as Captain Hayes, Galvayne, Professor Smith, *This Foreword was written in 1917. — Foreword and many others of lesser note. In the eases of all of them the spectacular subjugation of horses in a few minutes was the leading motif with an eye to gate money. In a number of instances I have taken the trouble to follow up the results of these lightning cures, and have found, in some cases, that after a few days the horse had become much worse than he was before. I was present when a pro- fessional tamer came out to a British Depend- ency with a great flourish of trumpets, and collected all the hard subjects in a certain city for demonstration of the value of his treatment. These included some artillery horses, with bad characters for stubbornness and evil temper. They came upon the ground, giving all sorts of trouble, with half a dozen men hanging on to each. His system con- sisted of strapping them up, pulUng them down by main force, beating drums and kerosene tins over their heads, firing off guns and the like. When they were stood up again, they were trembling and completely dazed, and one man could, -without difficulty, lead each about in a sort of dull, mechanical manner. This result was claimed as a great triumph for the system, but ten days later one of the artillery horses kiUed his groom, and the others developed such appalHng ferocity that within a month all were shot. Other rogue horses in the same city, treated in the same way, 3 Foreword were found subsequently to be much the worse for it, and several had to be destroyed. Tlie same sequelae followed demonstrations in other large cities, and, when this became generally known, the tour of instruction came to an end.