GENTLING, BEEAKING, AND TRAINIifG. 499 



THE YOUNG COLT. 



Take him in hand at once, and gentle him. Bo not let 

 ^ve days pass after he is foaled until you begin to handle 

 him. Never let the colt know what fear is, and yet you 

 must control him. Be certain to hold him fast before he 

 becomes strong enough to break away from you. There 

 never should be a time when the colt do.es not recognize the 

 mastery of his keeper, and the necessity for obedience. Never- 

 theless, every attention bestowed upon the little fellow should 

 be gentle and kind. No one should be permitted to frighten 

 him oi> to strike him with a whip ; he will alwa^'s remember 

 if, and will probably shy from the latter as long as he lives. 

 In after years the use of the whip may sometimes be neces- 

 sary, but at this tender age the colt should not know that 

 such a thing exists. 



The foal should be handled every day until he is perfectly 

 gentle, and all timidity and shyness have vanished. By a 

 little habitual patting and caressing, he will become very 

 strongly attached to his master. The colt that is allowed to 

 run until he is six months old, or more, and has no other 

 knowledge of his master except as a terrible monster to be 

 feared, or is in the habit of shying away from him, will sel- 

 dom get over this feeling entirely. It is at this early age 

 that most of the vices of the mature horses are begotten. 



An important truth, which stock-raisers and owners of 

 young colts seem nearly always to overlook, is that the colt 

 left to himself, without proper training, will just as certainly 

 run into bad habits, and those vices which so much detract 

 from the value of many horses, as that the child will go to 

 ruin when he is left to himself. The instructions of the Di- 

 vine "Word are to " train up a child in the way he should go, 

 and when he is old he will not depart from it." The same 

 fundamental law of education applies to the colt ; and as " a 

 child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame," so a colt 

 left to himself bringeth his master into trouble, and it may 

 be very serious trouble. 



