WHEN TO WHIP, 209 



the road, and should be put to field work, where they generally 

 improve in anything like good hands. 



484. — For fast work, if their wind is good, they can generally 

 he got through a bad place, by getting up plenty of speed before 

 you come to it, and driving them fast through it. They will 

 pull at a fast pace when they will not try to pull at a slow 

 one. Choose a place to rest them where the start and pulling will 

 be quite easy. Some of these that have been spoiled after learning 

 to pull well, will pull agaia, even in a bad place, after stopping 

 awhile, and others will back what they will not pull. 



485. — ^If they stop going up a short hill, it is generally best 

 to turn them round and drive them gently down the hill, then 

 get up steam at the foot of the hill, and drive up it full speed. 

 If you have to whip to get up the speed, whip before you come 

 to the hard pulling, and not whilst they are at it. 



48G. — Avoid touching the reins if you can help it whilst 

 any horse is struggling at a pull, a3 it will often stop him. Many 

 horses will pull when left alone, or very nicely led by the noseband 

 or upper part of the head, or guided by a push at the shoulder, 

 that will stop directly if pulled about by the reins or the bit. 

 Most of them will stop if they hear any whipping or 

 shouting, whilst pulling hard. Even a wild rabbit will often 

 stop at the height of his speed, if terrified with shouting close to 

 him. All these are only temporary expedients to get through a 

 journey, or out of some present difficulty. 



487. — The only way to permanently improve such horses, 

 is to habitually load them with no more than they can certainly 

 pull, until they forget the habit, cautiously increasing the load as 

 they learn to pull without alarm. The Irish have a proverb 

 that "light loads make good drawing horses" and if any 

 horse is to be kept good, still more if he is to be made 

 good, he must never be asked to do more than he can 

 certainly accomplish. In our youth we knew a miller's horse, a 

 most intelligent animal, that w^orked at the same mill for twenty 

 years. He had been badly broken and taught to jib as a colt, 

 but when we first knew him he would take five sacks of flour up 

 a very steep narrow lane, leading away from the mill, ten times a 

 



