Mental Therapeutics: Guiding Horses by Will. Every expert horseback rider knows that he can guide his horse without the bridle. The writer, when a youth, on more than one occasion won a wager that he could make his horse, when coming to a fork in the road, take either branch road without touching the bridle or in any other way guiding the horse than by simply strongly willing the horse to take the desired road. Even when it required the horse to take the opposite from an accustomed road he never failed. Old horsemen on the plains know of this peculiarity without attempting to explain it, and know, to, that when lost this very power often prevents speedy return to the trail because the rider unconsciously influences the horse to turn, when if left to itself the natural instincts of the horse would lead it in the right direction.

The explanation of this power is that the unconscious mind of the horse, which directs its actions, is moved by suggestion from the directing mind of the rider, and the horse simply obeys a natural impulse which it has not the mental ability to resist. The secret of success in mental therapeutics lies in the passive state of mind - a state greatly aided by faith - which enables the natural or subconscious mind to receive and act upon proper suggestion.