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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: want of experience. With teaching, practice, and habit, almost any
horse will come to perform all these feats beautifully, provided he be
sound and free from vice. Only you must beware of a horse that is
naturally of a nervous temperament. An over-timorous animal will not
only prevent the rider from using the vantage-ground of its back to
strike an enemy, but is as likely as not to bring him to earth
himself and plunge him into the worst of straits.
We must, also, find out of the horse shows any viciousness towards
other horses or towards human beings; also, whether he is skittish;[8]
such defects are apt to cause his owner trouble.
[8] Or, "very ticklish."
On Horsemanship |
