656 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



occurring from the imprudence of driving balkj beasts, and 

 yet many persons will persist in a practice fraught with im- 

 minent ^danger to property and life. Indeed, there is hardly 

 any matter in which men display more foolhardiness than in 

 their dealings with horses. 



There is no cure for a balky horse. We have seen nearly 

 all means tried, and have seen them fail, and have no con- 

 fidence in any plan for breaking up the detestable habit. 

 Many secret rules for the cure of it have been circulated in 

 the country, the chief effect of which has been to deceive 

 credulous persons, and to extract a few dollars from their 

 pockets. A class of secret-rule-selling impostors may tame 

 and control a very lazy horse^ so that he will stand still and 

 let you handle him, if you will scratch his itching hide and 

 breathe into his nostrils — an operation very grateful to him — 

 but none of them has ever succeeded in making an obstinate, 

 old, balky horse pull up a steep hill ; and, furthermore, they 

 never will do it. 



The horse can be trained from a colt to be true and steady 

 in harness, and kept from bad tricks, and broken of some 

 vices, but not of habitual balking. 



CHEWING THE REINS. 



This pernicious habit is mostly confined to young colts 

 and mules. The old horse is but seldom guilty of it, but 

 mules often continue it all their lives. 



It may be prevented and the animal effectually cured by 

 soaking the hitch-rein of the halter in a strong decoction 

 of Cayenne pepper. In the absence of Cayenne pepper to- 

 bacco may be employed. 



PULLING AT THE HALTER AND BREAKING AWAY. 



Some horses will never stand hitched by the halter,, but 

 are always restive and pulling, and frequently break away. 

 This is, in nearly all cases, a defect of early training — of 

 mismanagement of the colt while quite young. Boys are 

 apt to be continually scaring the colt, which, if tied with a 



