KICKING. 57 



Your supposed gentle horses would not bear; such as 

 driving without hold-back straps, tin pans thumping 

 against his heels, .or stopping at word of command so 

 quick that he would almost slide off his hind feet. The 

 first thing you do before breaking a kicker, or any 

 other kind of bad horse, you should ' the blinds off 

 your bridle. I have no use for blinds whatever. 



A horse's eyes were made for him to see, 

 therefore let him see; but how can he when he is penned 

 up in a pair of blinders? To illustrate what blinds 

 will do, I will relate a circumstance connected with a 

 very bad kicker that I once broke privately for a man. 

 After I had her thoroughly educated and made per- 

 fectly gentle to drive with an open bridle, and she 

 would bear tests that gentle horses, as ordinarily broken, 

 would not bear — when I turned her over to the owner. - 

 I warned him particularly not to put blinds on her. 

 I told him to drive her three or four weeks with an 

 open bridle, then, if he was determined to have blinds 

 on her, he should bring her to me and I would hitch 

 her the first time with blinds. He did so. After he had 

 driven her about three weeks, he brought her back and 

 said she was obedient to all the commands that I had 

 taught her, and she was driving perfectly well ; but the 

 mare had a Roman shaped head, and he got the idea 

 into his head that his horse was horribly ugly without 



