THE STANDARD 



HORSE AND STOCK BOOK, 



CHAPTER I. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



ONCE, while stopping with a 

 farmer, as a matter of amuse- 

 ment I took a colt that had 

 become unmanageable to him, and 

 made him perfectly gentle. Upon 

 learning what I had done, the farmer 

 was so surprised at the result as to 

 offer me fifty dollars for the secret. 

 Without thinking, I proposed teach- 

 ing him and ten of his neighbors 

 how I did it, in addition to other 

 points that might be of interest to 

 them. In this I was entirely suc- 

 cessful, and thus I was unintention- 

 ally drifted into the most trying 

 and exacting field of effort that 

 ever man engaged in, which con- 

 tinued nearly nineteen years. I 

 was necessarily forced into contact 

 with all sorts of people, who were 

 continually trying to break me 

 down, and in addition I had the 

 most vicious and difficult horses 



forced upon me to experiment upon ; and that I succeeded at all 

 seems to me even now so remarkable as to be beyond belief. But 

 without realizing it, or knowing it at the time, the people who forced 



[25] 



Fm. 1. Ideal Head of an Intelligent, 

 Docile Character. 



