THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



09 



halter, then shorten the distance between yourself 

 and the horse by taking up the strap in your 

 hand. 



As soon as he will allow you to hold him by a 

 tolerably short strap, and to step up to him with- 

 out flying back, you can begin to give him some 

 idea about leading. But to do this, do not go 

 before and attempt to pull him after you, but com- 

 mence by puUing him very quietly to one side. He 

 has nothing to brace either side of his neck, and 

 will soon yield to a steady, gradual pull of the 

 halter ; and as soon as you have pulled him a step 

 or two to one side, step up to him and caress him, 

 and then pull him again, repeating this operation 

 until you can pull him around in every direction, 

 and walk about the stable with him, which you can 

 do in a few minutes, for he will soon think when 

 you have made him step to the right or left a few 

 times, that he is compelled to follow the pull of the 

 halter, not knowing that he has the power to resist 

 your pulling ; besides, you have handled him so 

 gently that he is not afraid of you, and you always 

 caress him when he comes up to you, and he likes 

 that, and would just as lief follow you as not. And 

 after he has had a few lessons of that kind, if you 

 turn him out in a lot, he will come up to you every 

 opportunity he gets. You should lead him about 

 in the stable some time before you take him out, 

 opening the door, so that he can see out, leading 

 him up to it and back again, and past it. See that 

 there is nothing on the outside to make him jump 

 when you take him out, and as you go out with 

 him, try to make him go very slowly, catching hold 

 of the halter close to the jaw with your left hand, 

 while the right is resting on the top of the neck, 

 holding to his mane. After you are out with him 

 a little while, you can lead him about as you please. 

 Don't let any second person come up to you when 

 you first take him out; a stranger taking hold of 

 the halter would frighten him, and make him run. 

 There should not even be any one standing near 

 him to attract his attention or scare him. If you 

 are alone, and manage him rightly, it will not 

 require any more force to lead or hold him than it 

 would to manage a broke horse. 



HOW TO LEAD A COLT BY THE SIDE OF A 

 BROKE HORSE. 



If you should want to lead your colt by the side 

 of another horse, as is often the case, I would ad- 

 vise you to take your horse into the stable, attach 

 a second strap to the colt's halter, and lead your 

 horse up alongside of him. Then get on the broke 

 horse, and take one strap around his breast, under 

 his martingale (if he has any on), holding it in 

 your left hand. This will prevent the colt from 

 getting back too far : besides, you will have more 

 power to hold him, with the strap pulling against 

 the horse's breast. The other strap take up in 

 your right hand, to prevent him from running 

 ahead. Then turn him about a few times in the 

 stable; and, if the door is wide enough, ride out 

 with him in that position. If not, take the broke 

 horse out first, and stand his breast up against the 

 door. Then lead the colt to the same spot ; and 

 take the straps as before directed, one on each side 

 of his neck, Then let some one start the colt out ; 



and, as he comes out, turn your horse to the left ; 

 and you will have them all right. 



This is the best way to lead a colt. You can 

 manage any kind of colt in this way without any 

 trouble ; for if he tries to run ahead or pull back, 

 the two stra])8 will bring the horses facing each 

 other, so that you can very easily follow up his 

 movements, without doing much holding ; and as 

 soon as he stops running backward, you are right 

 with him, and all ready to go ahead ; and if he gets 

 stubborn, and does not want to go, you can remove 

 all his stubbornness by riding your horse against 

 his neck, thus compelling him to turn to the 

 right ; and after you have turned him about a few 

 times, he will be willing to go along. The next 

 thing, after you are through leading him, will be to 

 take him into a stable, and hitch him in such a 

 way as not to have him pull on the halter. And, 

 as they are often troublesome to get into a stable 

 the first few times, I will give you some instruc- 

 tions about getting him in. 



HOW TO LEAD A COLT INTO THE STABLE, AND 

 HITCH HIM, WITHOUT HAVING HIM PULL ON 

 THE HALTER. 



You should lead the broke horse into the stable 

 first ; and get the colt, if you can, to follow in after 

 him. If he refuses to go, step up to him, taking a 

 little stick or switch in your right hand. Then 

 take hold of the halter, close to his head, with 

 your left hand, at the same time reaching over his 

 back with your right arm, so that you can tap him 

 on the opposite side with your switch. Bring him 

 up facing the door; tap him lightly vv'ith your 

 switch, reaching as far back with it as you can. 

 This tapping, by being pretty well back, and on 

 the opposite side, will drive him ahead, and keep 

 him close to you : then, by giving him the right 

 direction with your left hand, you can walk into 

 the stable with him. I have walked colts into the 

 stable this way in less than a minute, after men 

 had worked at them half-an-hour, trying to pull 

 them in. If you cannot walk him in at once in 

 this way, turn him about, and walk him around in 

 every direction, until you can get him up to the 

 door without pulling at him. Then let him stand 

 a few minutes, keeping his head in the right direc- 

 tion with the halter; and he will walk in in less 

 than ten minutes. Never attempt to pull the colt 

 into the stable. That would make him think at 

 once that it was a dangerous place ; and, if he was 

 not afraid of it befoi-e, he would be then. Besides, 

 we do not want him to know anything about pull- 

 ing on the halter. Colts are often hurt, and some- 

 times killed, by trying to force them into the 

 stable; and those who attempt to do it in that way, 

 go into an uphill business, when a plain smooth 

 road is before them. 



If you want to hitch your colt, put him in a 

 tolerably wide stall, which should not be too long, 

 and should be connected by a bar or something of 

 that kind to the partition behind it; so that, after 

 the colt is in, he cannot get far enough back to 

 take a straight backward pull on the halter. Then, 

 by hitching him in the centre of the stall, it would 

 be impossible for him to pull on the halter; the 

 partition behind preventing him from going back. 



