Stubborn
opposition with steady, unwavering persistence, and always rewarding
ultimate obedience with gentle kindness and freedom.
Step by step, the training proceeded. Submission first, then an
establishment of perfect trust and confidence between horse and man,
without which nothing worth having could be attained.
After that, in orderly succession the rest followed: toleration of
handling, reining, mouthing, leading on foot, and on horseback and in due
time saddling and mounting. One thing at a time and nothing new until
the old was so perfected that when all was ready for the mounting from a
spectacular point of view the mounting was generally disappointing. Just
a little rearing and curvetting, then a quiet, trusting acceptance of
this new order of things.
Half a dozen horses were in hand at once, and, as with children at
school, some quickly got ahead of the others, and every day the interest
grew keener and keener in the individual character of the horses. At the
end of a week Jack announced that he was "going to catch the brown colt,"
next day. "It'll be worth seeing," he said; and from the Quiet Stockman
that was looked upon as a very pressing invitation.
From the day of the draughting he had ceased altogether to avoid me, and
in the days that followed had gradually realised that a horse could be
more to a woman than a means of locomotion; and now no longer drew the
line at conversations.
When we went up to the yards in the morning, the brown colt was in a
small yard by itself, and Jack was waiting at the gate, ready for its
"catching."
With a laugh at the wild rush with which the colt avoided him, he shut
himself into the yard with it, and moved quietly about, sometimes towards
it and sometimes from it; at times standing still and looking it over,
and at other times throwing a rope or sack carelessly down, waiting until
his presence had become familiar, and the colt had learned that there was
nothing to fear from it.
There was a curious calmness in the man's movements, a fearless repose
that utterly ignored the wild rushes, and as a natural result they soon
ceased; and within just a minute or two the beautiful creature was
standing still, watching in quivering wonder.
Gradually a double rope began to play in the air with ever-increasing
circles, awakening anew the colt's fears; and as these in turn subsided,
without any apparent effort a long running noose flickered out from the
circling rope, and, falling over the strong young head, lay still on the
arching neck.
The leap forward was terrific; but the rope brought the colt up with a
jerk; and in the instant's pause that followed the Quiet Stockman braced
himself for the mad rearing plunges that were coming.
