218 CYCLOrEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



the exercise must be sufficient to keep the muscular condition well up. 

 and the digestive organs in perfect order. Thus only can you expect to 

 have the most perfect colts as the produce of your sire. 



XVI. Training for Draft. 



A horse to be used safely for draft, requires less training than any 

 other. He has but one thing to learn ; viz : to exert his strength to the 

 best advantage when occasion requires. To accomplish this, he should 

 be daily exercised at a dead pull, being careful always not to overload, 

 until he has acquired his maximum strength, which will not be until the 

 age of eight or nine years is reached. 



Training to the Wagon. — The wagon-horse should be trained to trot 

 steadily with a light load, and to walk fast with a medium load. He 

 must turn readily to the right and left, and describe short circles ; he should 

 also be taught to stop suddenly, by throwing himself in the breechings, so 

 as to hold a wagon steady in going down hill, and last, but not least 

 important, he should be taught to back all that he can draw forward. 



XVII. How to Have a Good Plow Team. 



A plow team should be thoroughly under control. The animals should 

 be trained to the word, fully as much as to the rein, and taught to obey 

 promptly the slightest signal. They must be evenly matched for 

 strength and agility ; for a fast, fresh horse, and a slow, dull one, 

 together, are bad enough anywhere, but worst of all at the plow. With 

 suchateam, no plowman can do good work, and without good plowing we 

 need not expect good crops. The team should be taught to move forward 

 without crowding together or pulling apart ; at the end of the 

 furrow, the horse describing the least segment of the circle, should keep 

 a little behind the other when coming about, so as to avoid being step- 

 ped on ; and in the case of coming short-about, as in turning corners, he 

 should make the turn by a series of short steps. To accomplish this, the 

 team must be talked to, though few take the trouble to do it, and hence 

 we seldom see a really perfect plow team, one that can accomplish their 

 task with the least labor to themselves and their driver. 



XVm. Forming a Good Saddle Horse. 

 The forming of a saddle-horse, perfect in all his gaits, and amenable 

 to the slightest sign of the bridle, voice, or heel of the rider, is more 

 difficult than any other special training. It can only be done under a 

 sharp curb-bit, and, to use this pi-operly, the rider must have perfect 

 command of himself in the saddle, and the lightest possible hand in 

 using the reins. He must first become a horseman himself, before he 

 can train a horse to the saddle. The animal should be perfectly flexed, 



