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150 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
fellows. A vicious horse soon made himself oblivious
of the bridle and began to describe a series of
eccentric circles a process which usually resulted
in an empty saddle. The saddle-horses were shod
with thin iron shoes, the pack-animals with sandals
of plaited straw which usually lasted a day or even
less on a rough road. The highways or bridle-paths
were usually found strewed with cast-off sandals of
men and horses.
The common method of breaking in a colt was to
tie the animal into a harness with two long ropes,
to each of which five or six men took hold, and
allow him to run in an open
field.
They jerked
him about as they wished, tumbling him over or
bringing him to a sudden halt, sometimes so quickly
as to cause an involuntary somersault. Two or
three such exercises usually sufficed, unless the
subject were unusually spirited.
The best horses came from Nambu, in the north
of the main island, on the plains of which province
strong-limbed animals in large herds ran wild, and
where special attention was paid to rearing them.
They were rather gentle in disposition. The coatof-arms,
or crest, of the daimio of Soma was a
horse
tied between two posts one of the very few
animals in Japanese heraldry. In Satsuma, the
extreme south, the ponies were stunted in growth
and covered with woolly hair.
They were full of
fire, spiteful and snappish. In Tosa the horses were
so small, hardy, and stunted that they resembled the
Shetland breed. The smallness of the Tosa horses