HALTEEIXG A COLT. 49 



limbs of a colt are curious, as pro ring that an operatic n 

 which we have been in the habit of performing as a 

 matter of course without attaching any particular virtue 

 to it, has really a sort of mesmeric effect in soothing 

 and conciliating a nervous animal. The directions in 

 Chapter V. for approaching a colt deserve to be studied 

 very minutely, remembering always the maxim printed 

 at p. 57 Fear and anger, a good horseman should 

 never feel. 



It took Mr. Earey himself two hours to halter a 

 savage half-broken colt in Liverpool, but then he had 

 the disadvantage of being surrounded by an impatient 

 whispering circle of spectators. At Lord Poltimore's 

 seat in Devonshire, in February last (1858), Lord Rivers 

 was two hours alone with a very sulky biting colt, but 

 finally succeeded in haltering and saddling him. Yet his 

 lordship had only seen one lesson illustrated on a very 

 difficult horse at the Duke of Wellington's school. But 

 this operation is much more easily described than ex- 

 ecuted, because some colts will smell at your hand one 

 moment, and turn round as quick as lightning, and 

 plant their heels in your ribs if you are not very active, 

 and don't stand very close to them. On the directions 

 for using the whip, p. 55, with colts of a stubborn dis- 

 position, I can say nothing, never having seen it so 

 employed ; but it is evident, that it must be employed 

 with very great discretion. 



The directions for haltering are very complete, but to 

 execute them with a colt or horse that paws violently, 

 even in play, with his fore-feet, requires no common 

 agility. But I may mention that I saw Mr. Earey 

 alone put a bridle on a horse seventeen hands high that 

 was notoriously difficult to bridle even with two men 

 assisting in the operation. 







