HOW TO TRAIN A COLT. 171 



frightened at any thing, let him smell and touch it, and 

 he will fear no longer. 



If your colt is afraid of your harness as it comes 

 rustling out of the harness-room, let him touch it with 

 his nose, and smell of it a few times, and he will 

 soon understand that it will not hurt him. If he is 

 inclined to kick or jump if the breeching-band or any 

 strap hits his hams or legs, by gently rubbing them 

 against the sensitive places he will soon become indif- 

 ferent to them. By the time the colt is two years 

 of age, or even less, he should be educated to go 

 between the shafts, either forward or backward, and be 

 thoroughly familiar with the harness and vehicle and 

 ordinary road-service. Instructed at this early age, he 

 will never forget the lessons of obedience and sub- 

 mission taught, but be ready at any future time to be 

 put to work, without any considerable trouble to the 

 owner or purchaser. 



In case your colt is a vicious one, I have no advice 

 to give, unless it be to kill him. There is no need 

 that a vicious colt should ever be raised; and I hold 

 that it is a sin against the beneficent order of nature 

 for a man to raise an animal whose very existence 

 imperils other existences. The public would regard 

 a man insane who spent time and money in stock- 

 ing his garden-plot with a superior kind of thorns : 

 they would say that it was an abuse of nature, and a 

 sinful waste of opportunity. What shall we say, then, 

 to the man who goes to work, year after year, and 



