TEMPER AMONGST HORSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8812, 27 February 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

TEMPER AMONGST HORSES.

That good-tempered races contain very illnatured individuals raises the diilicult question of temperament. A good authority on horses, Mr. Mahew, endeavours to show that ill-temper among them is accidental, nob innate. However great our liking for horses, wo cannot; deny that some of tho ' best thoroughbreds are revengeful, quarrelsome, aud liable to frightfully suddenly fits of rage. No doubt this evil temper is often accompanied by splendid qualities of endurance. Chestuut horses, which have generally tho most uncertain tempers, are perhaps tho most high-couraged. But courage and temper are not always allied ; and temper and human management are not necessarily connected. Bendigo and Surefoot were both trained in the Seven Barrows stable by the late Mr. Jousiffo, who always avoided any severity of treatment, and never ran his horses "light." Each as a three-year-old won a great race, Bendigo the Cambridgeshire, Surefoot tho Two Thousand Guineas. Both carried off the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, worth £10,000, later in their career. Yet Bendigo had a perfect temper, while Surefoot's is well known to bo ferocious. Bendigo would train himself, and however well ho ran in trials on the White Horse Hill, his trainer knew that he would do still better on tho racecourse. In his last race, when ho was jusb beaten when carrying a crushing I weight, Watts gave him one stroke of the whip. But tho horse was doing all ho could, and tho jockey did not touch him | again. In the stable, tho big brown horse was almost as friendly with strangers as ho was with his devoted attendant, " Bendigo Pat," and the writer has soon no prettier sight than that of his trainer's little daughter hugging dear old Bendy V' noso. The horse had tho courage and gentleness of a knight of romance. Surefoot, on the other hand, under identical treatment, was dangerous in the stable, and savage even when running. In the actual race for the Derby lie tried to bite tho jockeys on the horses in front of him, and when being pub into the horso-box for the journey gave more trouble than a Murcian bull. Yet this savage temper was not accompanied by unusual courage and endurance, and in severe races the even-tempered Bendigo was his undoubted superior. Peter, another racehorse noted for his stubborn obstinacy, once gave an interesting object-lesson in temper as between man and horse, at Ascot. The horse fought with his jockey (Archer) for twenty minutes at the post, but the indomitable goodhumour of the jockey won. When the flag fell, the horse went off with a rush, but stopped in the middle of the race to kick. Archer neither moved nor struck him, and Peter then went on like tho wind, and won ! But horses of this temperament aro the exception, not the rule ; and the success with which we have developed power and courage, without producing animals like Cruiser or the celebrated General Chasa6, of whom his owner, Mr. Kirby, tho dealer, who sold largely in Russia, used to say that " the Emperor Paul was nothing to him," is one of the triumphs of domestication. The union of reckless courage and habitual ferocity is rare in the animal world, and the general law of good-nature remains absolute and unquestioned.