TRAINING FOR DRAUGHT. 245 



horses will bear almost anything in the way of sounds 

 and smells, but in the east of Europe the horses have 

 an intense dread of raw hides or anything that smells 

 of blood, especially the blood of their own kind,* and 

 it is therefore wise to avoid anything of this sort. 



We have already shown how the collar should fit, 

 and where the traces are best attached to the hames ; 

 and of course still greater care should be taken to adjust 

 all this properly with a young untrained animal than 

 with an older one that has been already in harness, the 

 great object being always to make the efforts you 

 demand from your horse as painless as possible. Now 

 the young horse comes in contact with two things that 

 distress or annoy him ; first of all the collar, and then 

 the bridle, or more properly the bit that is put into his 

 mouth. At first starting, young ones usually make 

 a violent effort, plunging, as it were, into the collar, and 

 then recoiling again to make a new plunge and a new 

 recoil, which sometimes ends in their throwing them- 

 selves down, or perhaps running away. Well, what is 

 it they recoil from the bit or the collar ? It certainly 

 is not always, nor even in most cases, the latter ; for 

 when the vehicle is pushed from behind by a couple of 

 men, or when another horse is yoked alongside in double 

 harness, so that the collar actually offers no resistance, 

 the same thing will frequently occur. 



In the second edition of this book a foot-note was 

 introduced here, recommending the adoption of a draw- 

 bar working against a spring for training brakes, and 

 also for gun limbers, with the view of diminishing 



* It is very ludicrous to witness the terror and loathing some 

 Hungarian horses experience at the sight of a donkey, especially 

 when he begins to bray. 



