21 8 BREAKING AND RIDING 



It is easy enough to get a friend who possesses 

 a motor — granted you have not one of your own 

 — to go backwards and forwards in your stable- 

 yard ; at first slowly, then more quickly, until 

 your colt is quite accustomed to the noise and 

 sight of a car whizzing past him. 



At first the youngster should be led up to the 

 automobile, afterwards led round, and allowed to 

 sniff even the car itself. Pat him on the neck and 

 make him understand that you are not frightened 

 with the car- yourself, and that there is no 

 occasion for him to be frightened either. 



Walk him past it ; trot him past it ; and do 

 not start the car — at first — alarmingly close to 

 him. Start it some little way off, and let it 

 run slowly past him. Turn the car and meet 

 him quietly, by free wheeling. 



In this first lesson in motors a decisive victory 

 will be gained by the breaker if he succeeds in 

 introducing the colt to a car without unduly 

 frightening him. 



Do not take the colt on to main roads until he 

 has ceased to feel alarmed by a car and its driver 

 in the stable-yard and the private drive he knows; 

 and therefore feels at home in. 



Horses are, as a rule, naturally docile if firmly 

 treated by those who understand them, and their 

 nervousness is more often the result of being 

 driven and ridden by nervous people than is 

 generally imagined. 



They very soon learn to lead and to know that 

 when the near rein is pulled they are to go to the 

 left, and when the off rein is tightened they must 



