22 THE HORSE: ITS TAMING, 



tance away, held quietly by a boy. The men, after a 

 lot of trouble, had got the halter on the foal's head, 

 then commenced to pull the foal aivay from its dam 

 instead of, as I should have done, lead it quietly 

 alongside of its dam. Then commenced the fight ; 

 the foal fairly rushed at the men two or three times, 

 and sent them spinning in all directions, mad with the 

 pain of the halter shank cutting its jaw, and at last 

 threw itself over backwards, and had to be kicked to 

 see if any life remained in it or not. If that dam 

 with its immense strength had possessed the power 

 of intelligence, would it have stood quietly by and 

 seen its young so abused and nearly killed? And 

 by a peculiar coincidence, the animal I had waiting 

 for me to teach upon at Stranraer was a good stamp 

 of a half-bred colt, rising four years; it was led by four 

 of the farm men, and they tried to bring it into the 

 tent; but the tent being very crowded, directly the 

 animal saw the people it pulled back, so a few of 

 the bystanders offered their services, and about ten 

 got on to the rope, but the combat was decided by the 

 colt pulling them all out of the tent, instead of them 

 pulling the colt /;/. I saw at a glance what was the 

 matter — the shank was buried into the jaw. I could 

 see the blood upon it, so as they pulled he threw his 

 head ;//, instead of down, so that he could not come 

 into the marquee, the entrance being rather low. 

 I said that if they would give me the colt I thought 



