WILL NOT BACK. 275 



with the Breaking Bit, or Half-moon Bit, and with a firm 

 hold of the reins get directly behind and call, " Back ! " 

 sharply. Follow this with a quick, sharp, raking pull, so 

 that, if possible, the horse can be forced back before warm- 

 ing up, as he will in this condition struggle hard to resist. 

 If he spreads his legs, and throws his head sullenly against 

 the bit or down upon the breast, the case is a bad one, 

 and it is necessary to work carefully. Simply repeat 

 slowly, and if there is not success before he warms up and 

 becomes reckless, put him away until cool, when the mouth 

 will be found so tender that he will rarely refuse to go back 

 freely when pulled upon. 



Great care should be used not to force the horse back 

 too freely after he once gives up ; for with the increased 

 tenderness of the mouth produced by the severe treatment, 

 he may acquire the habit of going back too freely when 

 pulled upon, — one of the most annoying habits a horse can 

 learn. I would call attention to this particularly in train- 

 ing colts to back. 



Usually a lesson of ten or fifteen minutes is sufficient 

 for ordinary cases, but I have in a few instances found old 

 horses that had learned this habit so thoroughly that it was 

 utterly impossible to break them of it. One of the worst 

 I ever found was in a small town in Connecticut. This 

 was a medium-sized, gray horse, twelve years old. He 

 could not be made to back, in or out of harness. The 

 Breaking Bit was used, and he was compelled at first to go 

 back repeatedly by making the jerks so quick and sharp as 

 to force him to yield before he could concentrate his pur- 

 pose to resist. But becoming warmed up, the legs were 

 thrown forward at an acute angle with such an obstinacy of 

 resistance as to defy the utmost force of punishment by 

 the bit. As a matter of experiment, five men pulled stead- 

 ily upon each rein ; but the horse resisted w^ith so much 



