TOLD BY A TRAINER.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2661, 26 May 1908, Page 2

TOLD BY A TRAINER.

"A . thousand pounds is*by no „ means a large figure for a performing horse of the first class," said the manager of a great circus syndicate. ►, "I am not talking of inferior shows at small fairs. I not long ago, bought four, horses for fifty , pounds apiece,; trained them,' atnd * sold them to- an American manager/ for three * thousand pounds. It takes anything from a jveek to a year to teach a horse a isingle-trick ; but I can generally 'ten in half an hour whether I shall be able to teach any particular one. . •- "Kindness—kindness —kindness.* It js the only way to make a horse an accomplished performer. That crack of the ring-master's whip which you hear is but a cue —just notice it at. the next entertainment you go to. Performing horses take their cu»*s.res-.,_. pecially from those who are on their' backs, as accurately as do human performers. "Horsqs do. not want to • make them perform ; they rehearse without, as a rule. .. When a horse can do a trick well, it is .proud of its performance, and will remember it any length of time without practising. I have known a horse, to perform a trick.after ceasing to do it for twelve months."