i6o The Management of Light Horses 



he did when he seemed to show so much promise. That is one 

 reason why I am opposed to the early showing of yearlings. There 

 is, of course, a cause and a remedy. The cause is generally over- 

 training; the remedy is to turn the colt (or filly) away. Some few 

 years ago there was a colt that won golden opinions wherever he 

 went. He won prize after prize, but at last came the day when he 

 was third to horses he had beaten before. His owner was advised 

 to turn him away. " Don't see him for two months," said his 

 friend. He followed the advice, and brought him out later to have 

 an unbeaten career to the end of the show season. 



A yearling, or any other young horse for that matter, frequently 

 suffers for the training of the winter weeks afterwards, when less 

 forcing methods can be, and are, used. There is considerable skill 

 required in taking the condition off — as much as in putting it on. 

 The young horse should be turned away into a bare sweet pasture, 

 where there is plenty of room. Nature will do the rest. When 

 he comes up again a few feeds of corn will put him in good heart. 



A word of warning may be given. Training horses for show is 

 a speciality, and it is unnecessary to urge the risk that is entailed 

 by happy-go-lucky methods of high feeding alone. High feeding 

 is necessary, but it should also be judicious. Some grooms arrive 

 at a wonderful proficiency in all the details attendant on the show 

 training of a horse, but they are seldom to be found in the class 

 of men usually employed on a farm. With them abundance, other- 

 wise too much, of the best of everything is the right way to get a 

 horse ready for either show or sale, and it is impossible for a horse 

 to be too fat. If a man has a really good horse, then — one which 

 is worth taking round to the leading shows — it will pay him to 

 engage a man to look after him, who can train him, and also show 

 him as he ought to be shown, which is no easy task. If this is not 

 done, and if it is only intended to show the hoj;se " about home ", 

 the owner's son is the best possible man to undertake the charge 

 provided he be enthusiastic enough. 



BREAKING AND MARKETING 



To the ordinary farmer, who only breeds one or two light 

 horses, the breaking in of his young stock can scarcely be com- 

 mended as a rule. He has perhaps no special aptitude for the job 

 himself, and amongst the farm hands there will scarcely be found 

 anyone fitted to undertake it. The village " breaker " is frequently 

 a capable man, but when a horse comes back after a month's tuition 

 at his hands to fall into the charge of a " mutton-fisted " ploughboy, 



