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and offended when taken seriously in liand. Foals from use will be as 

 easy and as much at home in the stable, as their dams, and will thence 

 Mibmit to be haltered fast; a thing which at one time or other may 

 prove of consequence ; for I remember the circumstance of a lot of 

 valuable colts and fillies, being sent to the metropolis for sale, when 

 tDne of them Avas found dead in the stable, having fallen back and broken 

 his neck in the halter. 



Yearlings may be broke and bitted if necessary, mounted by ?i feather 

 or boy of light weight; exclusive of turf purposes, such might be a pru- 

 dent speculation, ^^ ith a colt in which the hereditary taint of restiveness 

 was suspected, of the possible existence of which I do not doubt: but 

 the colt must ncA^er afterwards be intirely neglected, for I have seen 

 three-year olds backed, bitted and turned off, and when taken in hand 

 the following year, as wild and awkward as at fust. 



But the usual, indeed proper time to break a colt, is as soon as his 

 substance is sufficiently consolidated and his joints knit, to be able to 

 bear the weight of a capable breaker, without injury, which is in his 

 third year. Many small farmers, or other chance breeders, undertake 

 to break, that is, determine to spoil their colts, giving them neither 

 mouth nor distinct paces. However in the vicinity of running stables, 

 and in our great breeding districts, expert horse-breakers, are always 

 found. 



A horse-breaker should not ride a heavy weight, far less be of a 

 passionate and hasty disposition, such hair-brained fellows being far 

 more fit for the cells of bedlam, than for the use of the stable or the 

 course. Indeed patience and a certain mildness of temper, are the 

 first requisites for an attendant, not only upon Horses, but upon every 

 species of domesticated animals. With Horses for a man to excel, it is 

 requisite to join with temper, a degree of resolution bordering in 

 fearlessness; and this character is so well and instinctively known to 

 the animals, that frequently, the most naturally and incurably restive, 

 will proceed quietly with such. 



The colt should first of all, be taught patiently to comprehend that 

 which is required of him, and afterwards obedience is to be mildly and 

 gently, but resolutely enforced, and the point must never be conceded 



to 



