180 HORSE POKTKAITUEE. 



PUPIL. To avoid giving this one-sided mouth, is the 

 reason I use the halter with a ring in the noseband ; and 

 when I want to tame an obdurate, headstrong animal that 

 cannot be handled with the halter, I employ, in lieu of a 

 bridle, a small rope about half an inch in diameter. This 

 I form by making a loop that is large enough to go round 

 the lower jaw, tying a bowline knot that will not slip. The 

 rope is placed over the neck, and the end run through the 

 loop on the left side of the jaw. The pressure then is 

 equal on both sides, excepting so much as is produced by 

 the friction between the loop and rope. Soft ground or 

 snow is indispensable, especially when teaching the colt to 

 run around in so small a circle ; but it is astonishing how 

 soon they learn to go with safety to themselves. They 

 find out to a nicety how far the rein or rope will allow 

 them to go, and will just keep it straight without trying 

 to enlarge the circle in which they are moving. I have 

 practiced colts in this way for many years, and have never 

 been able to detect any injury to their legs from so doing. 

 You mentioned having known the curb bit used to advan- 

 tage with some trotters ; and I have known one at least 

 that got a good deal of his trotting education in one of 

 that character. 



A celebrated western horse, that* has trotted low down 

 in the twenties, and is thought by many enthusiastic ad- 

 mirers to be able to cope successfully with the best of the 

 eastern flyers, commenced his career when he could nei- 

 ther trot fast, nor be relied upon every time to clo what he 

 could, having a failing of buck-jumping whenever called 

 on to go a little faster. He was sold for a trifle, very few 

 recognizing him as a horse of any promise. The first races 

 he trotted he was easily beaten, through his proclivity for 

 going into the air. His owner, whose silvered hair and 

 beard betokened that the vigorous days of manhood had 

 passed, drove him on the road the following winter, and 



