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John Rarey Horse Tamer
John Rarey Horse Tamer
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Nook version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1861. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 150 years.
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The popularity of Mr. Rarey now became worldwide. The exhibitions of his horse-taming powers, and of Cruiser, were attended by crowds of every class of people ; but the ladies of the nobility and gentry were Mr. Rarey's most intelligent, most numerous, and most enthusiastic patrons—they not only filling the portions of the exhibitions allotted to them, but overflowing into every excellent place. Whether it was the admiration the sex is known to feel for the horse or some vague and undefined but still ever-present notion that the art of horse-taming could be applied to domestic uses, is not evident. Certain it is they formed a clear moiety of the audience.
Thy triumph of Mr. Rarey over a zebra was, in many respects, one of his most remarkable achievements. This beautiful but wild creature has not, at least in modern times, been looked upon any more as a beast of burden than is the lion; its nature was supposed to be essentially unmanageable—partaking, indeed, of the worst qualities of the lowest representatives of its species, and really not possessed, it has always seemed, of intelligence enough to be subdued. That Mr. Rarey, therefore, found in this "child of the desert" enough of the horse nature to control and inspire with confidence in the friendly intentions of man is indeed remarkable.
The zebra's mode of proceeding before he was tamed, if any one entered his stable, was, first to spring to the top of the rack, seize the crossbeam with his teeth, and absolutely hang in that position, which extraordinary proceeding enabled him to keep all his feet freely kicking in the air, ready to destroy any one who should approach him.
On the zebra's first appearance in the arena he was firmly lashed and held by his keepers, and while thus restrained he crunched upon his immense gag, or hard wooden bit, screamed like an infuriated hyena, and flung his heels wildly about, as if desirous of demolishing innumerable keepers' heads. Mr. Rarey consumed four hours in giving the creature its first lesson of subordination to kindly meant authority; and he afterward stated that it gave him more trouble and anxiety than would four hundred horses. Once fairly conquered, the zebra walked, trotted, and ambled in the ring as if trained from his infancy; and Mr. Rarey further gratified his admiring audience by—the first time in the world, perhaps riding a zebra. Naturalists have, from the time of Aristotle to Cuvier, pronounced the zebra untamable; yet Mr. Rarey has put the learned philosophers in science to shame, vindicating the power of kindness, the spell through which man should have dominion over the beasts of the field, the law that was ordained in the very beginning of time.
Read excerpt -
The popularity of Mr. Rarey now became worldwide. The exhibitions of his horse-taming powers, and of Cruiser, were attended by crowds of every class of people ; but the ladies of the nobility and gentry were Mr. Rarey's most intelligent, most numerous, and most enthusiastic patrons—they not only filling the portions of the exhibitions allotted to them, but overflowing into every excellent place. Whether it was the admiration the sex is known to feel for the horse or some vague and undefined but still ever-present notion that the art of horse-taming could be applied to domestic uses, is not evident. Certain it is they formed a clear moiety of the audience.
Thy triumph of Mr. Rarey over a zebra was, in many respects, one of his most remarkable achievements. This beautiful but wild creature has not, at least in modern times, been looked upon any more as a beast of burden than is the lion; its nature was supposed to be essentially unmanageable—partaking, indeed, of the worst qualities of the lowest representatives of its species, and really not possessed, it has always seemed, of intelligence enough to be subdued. That Mr. Rarey, therefore, found in this "child of the desert" enough of the horse nature to control and inspire with confidence in the friendly intentions of man is indeed remarkable.
The zebra's mode of proceeding before he was tamed, if any one entered his stable, was, first to spring to the top of the rack, seize the crossbeam with his teeth, and absolutely hang in that position, which extraordinary proceeding enabled him to keep all his feet freely kicking in the air, ready to destroy any one who should approach him.
On the zebra's first appearance in the arena he was firmly lashed and held by his keepers, and while thus restrained he crunched upon his immense gag, or hard wooden bit, screamed like an infuriated hyena, and flung his heels wildly about, as if desirous of demolishing innumerable keepers' heads. Mr. Rarey consumed four hours in giving the creature its first lesson of subordination to kindly meant authority; and he afterward stated that it gave him more trouble and anxiety than would four hundred horses. Once fairly conquered, the zebra walked, trotted, and ambled in the ring as if trained from his infancy; and Mr. Rarey further gratified his admiring audience by—the first time in the world, perhaps riding a zebra. Naturalists have, from the time of Aristotle to Cuvier, pronounced the zebra untamable; yet Mr. Rarey has put the learned philosophers in science to shame, vindicating the power of kindness, the spell through which man should have dominion over the beasts of the field, the law that was ordained in the very beginning of time.
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