276 THE HORSE 



The modern colt is easily educated, for, through 

 many generations of domestication, it has inherited 

 the capacity to acquire an education readily. On the 

 plains, it was once necessary to "break" and tame 

 colts as we do lions, by harsh methods, and in a 

 few cases it is still so. 



With rare exceptions, the colt on the farm is made 

 usable if, for a few hours each day for a week, he is 

 subjected to the restraints of a bitting harness in the 

 open paddock. (Fig. 79.) The check- and side-rein 

 should be left slack at first. Gradually, from day to 

 day, the reins may be shortened; provided, however, 

 they are never made so short as to place the head in 

 an uncomfortable position or draw the bit so tightly 

 into the corners of his mouth as to make them sore. 

 After the bitting, the colt may wear the harness and 

 be driven with lines in the open field, without being 

 attached to a vehicle. The next step is to drive him 

 for a few hours each day, by the side of a good -sized, 

 staid, mature horse attached to a farm -wagon, which 

 should be furnished with a brake, first in the open 

 field, until he learns what is wanted of him. The colt 

 is now ready for light work. The education should be 

 continuous, not spasmodic, and the after work should 

 be continuous but light. The way not to train a colt 

 is to give him one lesson a week or a month, which 

 he forgets before he receives his second lesson, and 

 then the first lesson has to be relearned. As the colt 

 is put to light work, the grain ration should be 

 increased, governed, however, by the exhaustiveness of 

 the service. If the work is light and the grain ration 



