THE HORSE. 771 



has learned to go in a harness, this lesson should be frequently repeated. While being 

 broken to the wagon it is a good plan to have him attached to it, and taken where there is 

 an incline, where the wagon will itself tend to run backward, down hill, thus making it easy 

 for him to back it at first. After having accomplished this to the satisfaction of his trainer, 

 he can be tried on level ground, and thus by degrees, adding after a time a slight weight and 

 increasing it, he may learn perfectly the (to him) difficult lesson. 



In the same manner he may learn what the word &quot; whoa &quot; means, and to obey it also, 

 and to stop by a pressure upon the bit. 



Breaking to the Saddle. This is learned by first putting a saddle upon him, leav 

 ing the belts very loose, and omitting the back straps, allowing him to stand in the stable 

 with it on for an hour or two each day, tightening gradually the belly-band. After two or 

 three days put on the back straps, and continue to tighten the belly-band until it is as tight 

 as is customarily worn. He should then be led about until he becomes accustomed to the 

 feeling of the saddle while walking, and when this is thoroughly learned a light weight, like 

 a small bag of grain, may be laid across it. In this way he will learn to carry a weight. 

 He should first be ridden by one he is well acquainted with, and who has charge of him. 

 No colt should, however, carry a heavy weight, such as a rider, for instance, until his back 

 has become sufficiently strong to enable him to do so without injury. The saddle gait can 

 afterward readily be taught. The mounting and dismounting should be done very carefully 

 and quietly at first, in order not to frighten the animal. 



The Age for Working Colts. Although for many reasons it is very desirable to 

 break the colt when young, yet it is not well for him to work hard until he has attained his 

 full growth and strength. The cause of so many horses breaking down early, is doubtless 

 due to over-work during the growing period, and before the bones have become sufficiently 

 hardened, or the muscles fully developed. By working a colt hard he will become an old 

 horse when he should be only in his prime. Although it may be expensive to kept a colt doing 

 but comparatively little when he is four or five years old, yet it will pay better in the end than 

 to over-work him, for he will last enough longer to more than make up for it. Every horse 

 should work at least two hours a day; they require exercise in order to promote health, and 

 many horses suffer for want of such exercise, being kept idle in close, confined stables. 

 Either extreme is injurious. Although a colt may do some light work at four, he should not 

 be put to hard service until he is six or seven years old. By such humane and considerate 

 treatment on the part of his owner, he may be made to do good service until he is from 

 twenty -five to thirty years old, or even longer, while many hard-worked colts become horses 

 that are past their usefulness at from twelve to fifteen years. 



How to Prevent a Colt from being Easily Frightened. There is a great 

 difference in horses with respect to their shying and becoming easily frightened while being 

 driven. The temperaments of animals differ as much as those of the human family, and 

 some horses are naturally more nervous and timid than. others. But this can be corrected in a 

 great measure by taking pains to permit a horse to examine and smell of everything that looks 

 new and strange to him. Everyone who has had any experience with horses, or has been at 

 all observing, will know that the natural, and, in fact, the only way in which a horse can 

 obtain a (to him) satisfactory knowledge of objects, is to smell of them; also to sometimes 

 feel of them with his nose. He seems to have no confidence in simply looking at an object, 

 and when greatly frightened at anything startling, will generally cease to fear it afterward, 

 if he can apply his nose to it for a moment, and examine it in this way, thus assuring him 

 self that it will not harm him. And a horse should always be permitted to do this. Some 

 of the most timid and nervous of horses can be greatly improved in this way, and many 

 serious accidents prevented. To whip a horse for being frightened, is the most stupid of 

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