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CHAPTER V. 



HALTERING AND LEADING. 



As we have different breakers, so have we differ- 

 ent systems of breaking. There are few systems 

 that do not possess some good points, although, 

 unfortunately, they also possess many bad ones, and, 

 when taken together, they have little to recommend 

 them, so far as inexperienced horsemen are con- 

 cerned. Indeed, in relying absolutely upon them 

 as guides, many valuable colts have been irrevocably 

 ruined. Horse-breaking, like all other sciences, is 

 capable of improvement, and, hitherto, force and 

 cruelty have played too prominent a part in the 

 handling of colts, instead of considering their peculi- 

 arities of temperament, and treating them accord- 

 ingly. 



DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF BREAKING. 



Rarey's system was perhaps the best of its day, yet 

 there were probably more horses spoiled under it 

 than under any system before or since, not so much 

 through any failure in the system itself, but through 

 its application by nervous and unskilled hands. 



F 



