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Having taught the horse to find and pick up the handkerchief it is very easy to substitute any other article in its place. If a card should be substituted it would be picked up just as anything else would be. The main difficulty is to teach the horse to pick the one desired from among the others, and that one only. To do this, spread half a dozen cards upon the ground at intervals of about ten feet. Let the horse go to one end of this line of cards. He will naturally stop at the first one he comes to, and, if left to himself, will pick it up. Instead of allowing him to do this, start him ahead with the voice using the term “Get up,” or any other which he has been taught means “go ahead.” Do this until he reaches the card which you desire him to pick up, at this you must remain silent unless he is about to pass it by like the former ones, in which case you say “Whoa,” and keep him standing before it until he picks it up. When he does this, reward him and speak encouragingly to him, that he may know he has done what you wished. If you make a practice of speaking to him when he stops at the wrong cards, and of keeping silent when he reaches the right one he will soon come to understand that “silence gives consent,” and that that is the proper card to select. The order in which the chosen card is placed in the row should be varied so that the horse may not learn to select the card by its position instead of obeying your signal. This enables you to let your auditors place the cards in any position or order their fancy may dictate without interfering at all with the successful “working” of the horse.

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