58 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



worn at all, a judgment may be formed that the horse will 

 be unsafe. 



The saddle-horse is most valuable for the pleasantness of 

 his paces, his safety, good temper, and endurance. If he is 

 equal to eight or ten miles an hour, the owner should be 

 satisfied. Horses that have extraordinary fleetness on the 

 road are not always pleasant to ride, and it is their too usual 

 fate to be disabled, and comparatively worthless, when the 

 slower horse is in his prime. 



The early life of this horse perhaps differs a little from 

 that of the farmer's horse : he is better taken care of during 

 the first winter; he has a hovel in which he may shelter him- 

 self, and has an allowance of hay, and perhaps of corn. The 

 winter passes away, and he has suffered little; and during 

 the early part of the year he gets his new coat, and is full of 

 spirits and vigor. In the third year comes the breaking-in; 

 and, with occasional exceptions, he suffers not much from the 

 ignorance and brutality of the breakers. The exceptions to 

 this, although they may be comparatively few and far be- 

 tween, should not be suffered for one moment to exist. He 

 is destined for the immediate service of the master, and 

 much of his after-character, and the pleasure derived from 

 him, depend upon the manner in which the breaking is per- 

 formed. There is, as in the inferior horse, one thing abso- 

 lutely indispensable that the colt, previously almost as free 

 as the air, must be taught to yield up his will to another, and 

 to obey with alacrity his master's bidding. Generally speak- 

 ing, this is easily accomplished. It demands only a certain 

 degree of firmness, mingled with kindness, and this task is, in 

 the majority of cases, readily accomplished. If the animal is 

 at the first somewhat disposed to resist, mingled firmness 

 and kindness will rarely fail to obtain a victory. 



The faults which will oftenest require correction in the 

 hackney are fear and restiveness. 



Gentle treatment will rarely or never fail to overcome 

 fear. The disinclination of the colt to come into contact 

 with the object should be quietly but firmly resisted, and 

 then, by succeeding in persuading him that there is no 

 ground of alarm, an unpleasant and dangerous habit is 

 broken at once. The pretended fear which the colt will occa- 

 sionally exhibit is a species of affectation that may be as read- 

 ily, and must be very determinedly, resisted. The quadru- 

 ped has occasionally as much affectation as the human being, 

 and it is fortunate for him, as well as his owner, when this is 

 put down with all possible promptness. 



