Occasionally, only when the course he was taking would have led him to obstacles impossible for the best jumper to surmount, Vincent attempted to put the slightest pressure upon one rein or the other, so as to direct it to an easier point.
At the end of six miles the horse's speed began slightly to abate, and Vincent, abstaining from the use of his spurs, pressed it with his knees and spoke to it cheerfully, urging it forward.

He now from time to time bent forward and patted it, and for another six miles kept it going at a speed almost as great as that at which it had started.

Then he allowed it gradually to slacken its pace, until at last first the gallop and then the trot ceased, and it broke into a walk.
"You have had a fine gallop, old fellow," Vincent said, patting it; "and so have I.There's been nothing for you to lose your temper about, and the next road we come upon we will turn your face homeward.

Half a dozen lessons like this, and then, no doubt, we shall be good friends." The journey home was performed at a walk, Vincent talking the greater part of the time to the horse.

It took a good deal more than six lessons before Wildfire would start without a preliminary struggle with his master, but in the end kindness and patience conquered.