498 TO CURE BALKY HORSES. 



TO CUKE BALKY HOKSES. 



Horses know nothing about balking, except as they are brought 

 into it by improper management. When a horse balks in harness, 

 it is generally from some mismanagement, excitement, confusion, 

 or from not knowing how to pull, but seldom from any unwilling- 

 ness to perform all that he understands. High spirited, free-going 

 horses are the most subject to balking, and only so because drivers 

 do not understand how to manage them. A free horse in a team 

 may be so anxious to go that when he hears the word he will start 

 with a jump, which will not move the load, but give him such a 

 severe jerk on the shoulders that he will fly back and stop the other 

 horse ; the teamster will continue his driving without any cessation 

 and by the time he has the slow horse started again he will find that 

 the free horse has made another jump and again flown back. Then 

 perhaps he has them both badly balked, and so confused that neither 

 of them knows what is the matter, or how to start the load. 



Bad Management Next will come the slashing and crack- 

 ing of the whip and hallooing of the driver, till something is broken 

 or he is through with his course of treatment. What a mistake is 

 made by whipping the horse for this act. Reason and common 

 sense should teach the driver that the horse was willing to go, but 

 did not know how to start the load. And should he whip him for 

 that? A man should act rationally; should not fly into a passion, 

 but should think before he strikes. It takes a steady pressure against 

 the collar to move a load and you cannot expect an animal to act with 

 a steady, determined purpose while you are whipping him. There 

 is hardly one balking horse in five hundred that will pull true from 

 whipping. It will only make him more liable to balk another time. 

 You always see horses that have been balked a few times turn their 

 heads and look back. This is because they have been whipped and 

 are afraid of what is behind them. This is an invariable rule with 

 balked horses. 



The Right Way When your horse balks, or is a little 

 excited, if he wants to start quickly, or looks around and don't want 

 to go, caress him kindly, and if he don't understand at once what you 

 want him to do, he will not be so much excited as to jump and break 

 things and do wrong through fear. As long as you are calm and 

 can keep down the excitement of the horse, there are ten chances to 

 have him understand you where there w r ould not be one under harsh 

 treatment; and then the little flare-up would not carry with it any 

 unfavorable recollection and he would soon forget all about it, and 

 learn to pull true. Almost every wrong act the horse commits is 

 from mismanagement, fear, or excitement ; one harsh word will 

 so excite a nervous horse as to increase his pulse ten beats in a 

 minute. 



When we remember that we are dealing with dumb brutes, and 

 reflect how difficult it must be for them to understand our motions, 





