EDUCATING THE HORSE. .291 



AN EASY METHOD OF STARTING A BALKY 

 HORSE WHO STOPS ON THE ROAD. 



Amonor the various bad habits which horses 

 acquire there are none which more severely try 

 the patience of man than does the habit of 

 balking. Frequently a horse is quiet, kind, and 

 a good roadster, but has this habit of occasion- 

 ally stopping in the road. At such times the al- 

 most universal practice is to whip the horse, and 

 sometimes most brutally, or the more sickening- 

 custom of procuring a bundle of straw or some 

 shavings and setting them on fire under the 

 body of the horse. Such kinds of treatment I 

 utterly discard, and the reader will find, in an- 

 other part of my book, that I give several 

 methods which will prove effectual in eradicating 

 this habit, only meting out sufficient punishment 

 to secure obedience. 



Below I orive an excellent method of starting 

 a balky horse, and one which will prove effect- 

 ual, though it will not educate the horse to 



