TKEATMENT OF COLT. 331 



bit being for the first few days covered with undressed 

 wool. Wealthy owners, before allowing their colts to 

 be mounted by a grown man, sometimes have them led 

 up and down gently for a fortnight with a pack-saddle 

 on their backs, supporting two baskets filled with sand. 



" Suppose the colt now to have completed two 

 years and a half, his vertebral column has acquired 

 strength the clogs, the saddle, and the bridle are fami- 

 liar to him. A cavalier mounts on his back. The ani- 

 mal is certainly very young, but he will be ridden only 

 at a walking pace, and his bit will be a very easy one. 

 The main point is to accustom him to obedience. The 

 owner without spurs, and holding only a light cane, 

 which he uses as little as possible rides him to the 

 market, or to visit his friends, his flocks and pastures, 

 and attends to his affairs, without exacting anything 

 more than submission and docility. This he ordinarily 

 obtains by never speaking to him except in a low voice, 

 without passion, and carefully avoiding anything likely 

 to elicit opposition, that must result in a contest from 

 which he might come forth conqueror but at the expense 

 of his horse. Particular importance is attached to keep- 

 ing the young animal still and quiet for a few minutes 

 before letting him start." 



When the colt is about thirty months old he is taught 

 not to break loose from his rider when dismounting, 

 and not even to stir from the spot where the bridle has 

 been passed over his head and allowed to drag on the 

 ground. This lesson, so important to Arabs, and which 

 all horses should learn, is taught thus : A slave stands 

 beside the colt and puts his foot on the bridle whenever 

 the animal is about to go off, and thus gives a disagree- 

 able shock to the bars of his mouth. After a few days 

 of this exercise he will stand stock-still at the place 

 where he has been left, and to which he possibly fancies 

 that he has been fastened. What would a farmer think 

 if he saw a man go into the midst of a horse-market, 

 pass the bridle over his horse's neck, let it fall to the 



