492 PULLING ON THE H ALTER. 



PULLING ON THE HALTER. 



You should lead a broken 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 nalter 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 with your switch, reaching as 

 far back with it as you can. TJiis 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. Never seek to 

 get a colt into the stable by main force. Human brute force 

 against animal brute force never accomplished any good result, 

 whether the animal was large or small. If you cannot lead 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 direction 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 before, he would be then. Besides, we do 

 not want him to know anything about pulling on the halter. Colts 

 are often hurt, and sometimes killed, by trying to force them into 

 the stable ; and those who attempt to do it in that way, go into an 

 up-hill business, when a plain, smooth road is before them. 



The Stall If you want to hitch your colt, put him in a tol- 

 erably 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 will be impossible for him to pull on the 

 halter, the partition behind preventing him from going back, and 

 the halter in the centre checking him every time he turns. to the left 

 or right. In a stall of this kind you can break the horse to stand 

 hitched by a light strap, anywhere, without his ever knowing any- 

 thing about pulling. Jout if you have broken your horse to lead, 

 and have taught him the use of the halter (which you should always 

 do before you hitch him to anything), you can hitch him in any 

 kind of a stall, and give him something to eat to keep him up to his 

 place for a few minutes at first, and there is not one colt in fifty 

 that will pull on his halter. 



Another Method First, buckle a strap around the left 

 fore-leg of the animal, just above the knee; then pass the halter-strap 

 through the hole in the manger arid make it fast to the strap arouna 

 the fore-leg. As the horse pulls back, it pulls his fore-leg forward; 

 and no horse will enjoy breaking his halter at the expense of his 



