BRANDING — BREAKING 



a rest, and also if the animal is unwell or in an exhausted 

 state, when it may refuse grain. The way to make a bran 

 mash is to place from 2 to 4 lbs. of bran in a bucket that 

 has been heated, and flavour with a little salt, then add boil- 

 ing water according to the amount of bran used, sufficient 

 to thoroughly damp it. Stir thoroughly until it is well 

 mixed up, cover it over with a thick cloth, and it will be 

 ready for use in twenty minutes. (See Gruel, Restoratives.) 



Branding. — Branding with hot irons is the most 

 common means of distinguishing the horses belonging to 

 different owners who turn their breeding stock on to common 

 land. The practice, however, is open to objection, as the 

 marks are frequently great disfigurements when the animal's 

 coat has been the subject of care to his groom in after life, 

 and consequently the branding irons had better be applied 

 to the sides where the saddle will hide them in the case of 

 riding horses. It is a difficult matter, too, to distinguish 

 brands at a distance when horses have on their long winter 

 coats, and therefore some breeders adopt other methods of 

 identification. Branding numbers on the feet is a practice 

 adopted by the Government and many owners of large studs in 

 order to identify their horses. (See Ear Marks, Tail Notches.) 



Break. — A horse's action is said to break when he 

 changes from a trot into a canter, or a walk into a trot, at 

 the will of the person in charge of him or otherwise. (See 

 Off his Feet.) 



Breaking. — It is a sad but most unquestionable fact that 

 many hundreds of valuable colts are utterly ruined every 

 year by the incompetence or the bad tempers of those to whom 

 the responsibility of breaking them is entrusted. Perhaps 

 a third cause may be said to be the undue haste which 

 characterises the work of the professional horse-breaker, who 

 may happen to have a number of pupils on his hands at 



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