168 HOESE PORTRAITURE. 



again, giving her time to go on and never repeating the 

 blow till she was placed properly to go straight past the 

 barn. It was not long before she became satisfied that her 

 best course was to do as she was wanted, and passed and 

 repassed the barn without any hesitation. Had I attempt- 

 ed this lesson when she was in the sulky, confining her 

 with lacking-straps, in all probability she would have 

 thrown herself, breaking the shafts, or doing mischief of 

 some kind. 



After the colts are thoroughly broken to the bit, the 

 rest of the harness is put on, and as soon as they become 

 familiarized with the breaching dangling about their quar- 

 ters, they are placed in the shafts, taking the precaution 

 of using a kicking-strap, though in all of the colts I have 

 broken but one or two have needed this safeguard. By 

 the time the snow and frost have followed the golden au- 

 tumn, our colts are all broken, and are wintered much the 

 same way as the preceeding season, fed all they will eat 

 heartily, and allowed plenty of opportunity for exercise. 

 They are now nearly as handy as old horses, having been 

 driven single and double, without requiring them to show 

 more speed than their natural trot. When brought safely 

 through the winter, so well grown and furnished, that they 

 look like three-year-olds, nearly all of them being over 

 fifteen hands, and " thick through as a hay-stack." 



I beg pardon, as I find I have been talking as if I were 

 the master, in place of the scholar who hopes to profit so 

 much from your instruction. 



PEECEPTOB. There is no need of offering any apologies, 

 as I have previously told you that your experience in rear- 

 ing, breeding, and handling colts has been much more ex- 

 tensive than mine, and that you are therefore capable of 

 teaching me this branch of the business. I never broke a 

 colt in my life, though I have had horses that I would 

 much rather have had in a state of nature than as they 



