HOW TO TRAIN A COLT. 18T 



and swift as a swallow's ! See that sorrel trot ! Look 

 at liis stride ! How he opens out ! Ha ! did you see the 

 chestnut catch his step? Good heavens! how that 

 brown one runs ! Ho! here, boys; here! Now look and 

 see them come strung out in line, heads towards us, ears 

 pricked, and eyes on fire! Hi, there! hi, there! Now 

 see them swoop to the left, and go tearing away like 

 mad, muzzles straight out, and ears laid back, until they 

 pass the ridge, and the valley catches them from our 

 sight! Circus! — there never was such a circus as that! 

 It's enough to stir the blood in the veins of a deacon ! 



It is the exercise-lot, and the exercise-lot alone, that 

 can take the place and make good the absence of na- 

 ture's liberty. In it the colt can run and jump and 

 race, and double this way and that, and check himself, 

 as only a colt can when in full career, to his heart's 

 content. Every owner of a colt should have an exer- 

 K3ise-lot. It costs little to make one, and will pay for 

 itself fifty times over in two years. Let it be from ten 

 to fifteen rods long, and from eight to ten rods wide. 

 The ground should be level, ploughed, and raked free 

 of cobbles. It should be fenced with boards not wider 

 than two inches apart, and at least seven feet in height. 

 The posts should be on the outer side, so that the in- 

 side may be flush, with no projection against which the 

 colt can strike. Take a shovel, and heave up a slight 

 bank around the inner side, like to what the ring-master 

 of the circus does, that his horses may get a foot-support 

 as they circle round. Now build you a raised platform 



