Advantages of Training while Young 117 



adjusting the check-rein when put in harness. Ob- 

 serve his natural action and balance that you may 

 know how to treat him in the future. The gait must 

 receive much careful attention and any hitching or 

 roughness in the action be immediately remedied. In 

 order to develop maximum speed and action, this 

 early training calls for coolness, watchfulness and 

 tact. A study of the peculiarities of the individual 

 colt is a very important part of the trainer's work. 

 If the colt is thrifty and strong, he may be worked 

 in some such manner until about fifteen months of 

 age, when he should be trained to harness. While 

 such work requires time and calls for patient effort 

 and native ability, if properly conducted it will bring 

 out many peculiarities of the colt. In the first place 

 it will indicate his possibilities, and one can form a 

 fair idea of the kind of a horse he is going to make ; 

 or at least, if there is nothing in him he will have 

 demonstrated the fact long before he is fifteen months 

 of age. In the second place, it will bring out his 

 natural carriage and action. Up to this age he must 

 rely upon himself, and such action as he possesses he 

 has acquired without assistance, and if studied care- 

 fully one can form an idea of how properly to balance 

 him. Furthermore, early training develops a good 

 disposition. The colt grows up under control and 

 never knows absolute freedom. Before he is strong 

 enough to make stubborn resistance, he is taught 

 that there is nothing to resist and hence he never 



