36 DOMI^STIC AKIMALS. 



quers immediately. Sometimes he gets very angry, strikes the knee on 

 the ground, and otherwise endeavors to get the knee loose. Yoii ran 

 sit down and look at him at your case till he gives up. When this 

 takes place, let down the horse's foot, rub his leg, and caress him; let 

 him rest a little, and then put the foot up again. Repeat this several 

 times, till the horse has learned to walk on three legs. You then put 

 the horse into a sulky. Having his foot hitched up, he cannot kick, 

 howsoever much he may desire to ; nor can he run away, if ever so 

 much inclined. Mr. Rarey's theory is, that a horse kicks because he is 

 afraid of something behind him, or of the man or other object ap- 

 proaching him. And he first incapacitates him from kicking, and then 

 accustoms him to whatever he was before in fear of, be this a rattling 

 vehicle, or a man's hand on his heels. A very few hours' time suffices 

 to accomplish this taming of the most vicious brute. 



About Balky Horses. — Mr. Rarey asserts that the horse knows nothing 

 naturally about balking — and that the animal which practices any of 

 the various freaks known under this name, docs so either because bad 

 management has led him into bad habits, or because, though willing to 

 obey, he does not comprehend what his master desires of him. In all 

 these cases, therefore, he maintains that the whip and the loud angry 

 voice are entirely out of place, and only make bad worse. If the horse 

 balks he is excited. The first thing, therefore, is to go to his head, 

 speak to him kindly, pat and smooth him, and thus get him quieted 

 down. The whip must not be shown at all. When he is calmed you 

 can start your team. It is not a sudden jerk against the collar which 

 moves the load, but a steady pressure. All kinds of violence, therefore, 

 tend to the wrong course. The object is to start the horses even ; and 

 as the balky horse generall}' plunges first, you are to keep him back 

 gently till they can both tak*^ the strain together. A quick way to 

 accomplish this — but not the surest way, Mr. Rarey says — "is one I have 

 myself seen practiced in Ohio. This is, to lift one fore-foot of the balky 

 horse, and start the team. As he presses forward, you let him have his 

 foot, when he will almost always take the strain with his mate." A 

 better w'ay, according to Mr. Rarey, is to let the lines hang quite slack, 

 get the horses calmed down, and then stand in front of them, and turn 

 them gently to the right without letting them bring a strain upon the 

 traces. From this turn them as gently to the left. By this time they 

 will be moving in unison, and, as you turn them again to the right, 

 steady them in the collar, and they will go off together easily. If vou 

 are patient and careful, you can make any horse pull true by this 

 mauairement. 



STABLE MANAGEMENT.— The first thing of importance in the treat- 

 ment of a horse is the building which is provided for him, or his stable. 

 Perhaps the best way of treating the subject is to show wdiat his stable 

 ought not to be, and that, unfortunately both for the animal and his 

 owner, will be to show what it too generally is. 



In the first place, it ought not to be dark ; and in this respect there 

 are but too many proprietors of horses who will, in their practice at 



