48 RAREY ON HORSE-TAMING. 



foreigner, of foreign ways and foreign language. 

 We should always recollect that our ways and lan- 

 guage are just as foreign and unknown to the horse 

 as any language in the world is to us ; and should 

 try to practice what we could understand were we 

 the horse, endeavoring by some simple means to 

 work on his understanding rather than on the dif- 

 ferent parts of his body. All balked horses can be 

 started true and steady in a few minutes' time ; they 

 are willing to pull as soon as they know how ; and 

 I never yet found a balked horse that I could not 

 teach to start his load in fifteen, and often in less 

 than three minutes' time. 



Almost any team, when fir.st balked, will start 

 kindly if you let them stand five or ten minutes, as 

 though there was nothing wrong, and then speak to 

 them with a steady voice, and turn them a little to 

 the right or left so as to get them both in motion 

 before they feel the pinch or the load. But if you 

 want to start along a team that you are not driving 

 3'ourself, that has been balked, fooled, and whipped 

 for some time, go to them and hang the lines on 

 their hames, or fasten them to the wagon, so that 

 they will be perfectly loose ; make the driver and 

 spectators, if there are any, stand off some distance 

 to one side, so as not to attract the attention of the 

 horses ; unloose their check reins, so that they can 

 get their heads doAvn, if they choose ; let them stand 

 a few minutes in this condition, until you can see 

 that they are a little com.posed. While they are 

 standing you should be about their heads gentling 



