the horse goes forward. Otherwise, he will not know when he does wrong or when he does right, because he gets beaten whether he goes forward or back. I therefore particularly advise the breaker never to lose his temper, although retaining the utmost energy.

I once had a black thorough-bred, called Negro, which I rode in public for four or five years. He never failed me in work, although he was peevish and screamed when touched with the spur. When I began to break him, he ran back immediately I closed my legs.

For two months he did not stop running back under me during a lesson of twenty minutes each day. I was in despair. All the breakers of my acquaintance said that I would never succeed in making him go forward, yet he gave in at last. He even became an excellent lady's horse, and never relapsed into the troublesome vice, of which I had great trouble to cure him. To succeed in this, I used the spurs only by touches. They should never be kept stuck in the animal's sides.^[1] The spurs which I used were very sharp, and I applied them, as I always do, as close as possible to the girths.^[2] I, of course, took care to pat the animal on the neck the moment he went forward. I must, however, admit that after a struggle during twenty minutes without ceasing, I was completely exhausted, and so was my horse. To break such an animal, one must be young, have a very strong seat and good loins, because they are the first to get tired.

The reason for ceasing to keep the horse in the same place,