TO CUKE BALKY HORSES. 499 



signs and language, we should never get out of patience with them 

 because they do not understand us, or wonder at their doing things 

 wrong. With all our intellect, if we were placed in the horse's 

 situation, it would be difficult for us to understand the driving of 

 some foreigner, of foreign ways and foreign language. We should 

 always recollect that our ways and language are just as foreign and 

 unknown to the horse as any language in the world is to us and should 

 try to practice what we could understand were we the horse, 

 endeavoring by some simple means to work on his understanding, 

 rather than on the different parts of his body. 



Almost any team, when first balked, will start kindly if you let 

 them stand five or ten minutes, as though there was nothing wrong, 

 and then speak to them with a steady voice and turn them a little 

 to the right or left, so as to get them both in motion before they 

 feel the pinch of the load. If you want to start a team that you are 

 not driving yourself, that has been balked and whipped for some 

 time, go to them and hang the lines on their hames, or fasten them 

 to the wagon, so that they will be perfectly loose; make the driver 

 and spectators (if there be any) stand off some distance to one side 

 so as not to attract the attention of the horses ; unloose their check- 

 reins so that they can get their heads down if they choose ; let them 

 stand a few minutes in this condition until you can see that they 

 are a little composed. While they are standing you should be about 

 their heads, gentling them ; it will make them a little more kind. 

 When you have them ready to start, stand before them, and as you 

 seldom have but one balky horse in a team, get as near in front of 

 him as you can, and if he is too fast for the other horse, let his nose 

 come against your breast; this will keep him steady, for he will go 

 slow rather than run on you. Turn them gently to the right, with- 

 out letting them pull on the traces, as far as the tongue will let 

 them go ; stop them with a kind word, gentle them a little, and then 

 turn them back to the left by the same process. You will have 

 them under your control by this time, and as you turn them again 

 to the right, steady them in the collar, and you can take them where 

 you please, unless the load is beyond their power to move. 



To Start The Balky Horse There is another plan that 

 will generally start a balky horse, but not so surely. Stand him a 

 a little ahead so that his shoulders will be against the collar, and 

 then take up one of his fore feet in your hand, and let the driver 

 start them, and when the weight comes against his shoulders he 

 will try to step; then let him nave his foot and he will go right 

 along. If you want to break a horse from balking that has long 

 been in that habit you ought to set apart a half -day for that pur- 

 pose. Put him by the side of some steady horse ; have check lines 

 on them ; tie up all the traces and straps, so that there will be noth- 

 ing to excite them ; do not rein them up, but let them have their 

 heads loose. Walk them about together for some time as slowly 

 and lazily as possible; stop often, and go np to your balky horse 



