ON BREAKING RACING COLTS. 357 



rider's coat against their sides, or when the wind is 

 strongly blowing the clothes against them ; or when 

 race-horses are travelling, it sometimes happens, from 

 the neglectful manner in which the boys put on the 

 different things about their horses, and by their not 

 making them sufficiently secure, that a breast-cloth may 

 get loose and hang down about a horse, or a muzzle 

 improperly put on, may hang down too low about 

 him ; and from either of these circumstances, a horse 

 which has not been broke in such tackle as I have just 

 described, may become alarmed, and will make great 

 efforts to get loose. 



Colts should be attended in this way, until they are 

 sufficiently forward in their breaking to be entrusted 

 entirely to the care of one person, under the superin- 

 tendence of the colt breaker. For the first two or three 

 days of their having the mouthing bits put on them, 

 the bits should be allowed to play loosely in their 

 mouths; and in cruppering them, they should be han- 

 dled boldly and without fear. The hair should be well 

 cleared out from between the dock and the crupper ; 

 nor should the latter be drawn up too tight, at first. 

 The roller should also be tightened very gradually; 

 for if colts are suddenly girthed up tight, most of them 

 will set up their backs and plunge, and if they contract 

 the habit of doing this, it sometimes becomes a difficult 

 task to break them of it. 



A horse which may have acquired this habit from 

 being badly managed in his breaking, requires great 



