186 FOUR-HORSE ROLLER, 



plottghing, and well supplied with roots or green food, and very 

 gradually inured to the collar, even a two-year-old may be daily 

 worked for a few hours with great advantage, as it will make a 

 far more reliable collar horse of him at four years old, than he 

 could be made if hastily broken at a later age. Double and treble 

 furrow ploughs, with large teams, offer great facilities for breaking 

 in young horses of a less gentle nature, as the ploughman is more at 

 liberty to attend to his horses, and the wildest or most vicious colt 

 can be put where he can do no harm ; but in any large teams great 

 care and watchfulness are necessary to prevent spoiling the colt as a 

 puller, by driving him at a pull too heavy for him to take alone. 

 A long waiting pull at a heavy start is a most important thing to 

 teach the horse ultimately, but it is a task that should not be 

 demanded of a young horse until he has had a good deal of practice 

 at a collar that will move for a shorter exertion. 



413. — If the colt in his early lessons has shown symptoms 

 of vice, has attempted to bolt or plunge, and has kicked long 

 and viciously at his lessons with the pole (383), and especially if 

 he is evidently a headstrong, resolute puller, it will be safer not to 

 work him in a chain harrow alone, but after plenty of walking 

 by the side of a working team (410), put him on to a four-horse 

 roller, on the near side before. Take great care to restrain him 

 at a start, and to make the old horses start before him. After a 

 day or two in the traces, he may be put into the shafts. Shorten 

 the tugs and breeching, so as to leave him little play backwards 

 or forwards, and put a strap or rope over his rump to prevent 

 the possibility of a kick. You must still take great care to make 

 the old horses start first, without any noise or fuss, and don't let 

 the colt get cowed by pulling at what he cannot move alone. 

 Be careful in putting him iu and out at first, that nothing is done 

 to frighten him. Let the tugs be the first things to hitch, when 

 putting him in, and the last things to unhitch when taking him 

 out Let the shafts down gently without hurting bis legs or 

 feet with them. Any hitch, or alarm, or injury at this stage 

 will be long remembered, and cause a great deal of after 

 trouble. 



414. — If it is intended that the colt should be worked in 



