Kicking Hokses. 79 



all habits. There are plenty of ways by which you 

 can hitch a kicking horse, and force him to go, though 

 he kicks all the time ; but this don't have any good " 

 effect towards breaking him, for we know that horses 

 kick because they are afraid of what is behind them, 

 and when they kick agamst it and it hurts them, they 

 A\ill only kick the harder, and this will hurt them still 

 more, and make them remember the scrape much longer, 

 and make it still more difficult to persuade them to 

 haye any confidence in anything dragging behmd them 

 eyer after. 



By this new method you can hitch them to a rattlmg 

 sulky, plow, wagon, or anything else in its worst shape. 

 They may be frightened at first, but cannot kick, or 

 do anything to hurt themselyes, and will soon find that 

 you do not intend to hurt them, and then they will not 

 care anything more about it. You can then let down 

 the leg, and driye along gently without any further 

 trouble. By this new process a bad kicking horse can 

 be learned to go gentle in harness in a few hours time. 



ON BAXKING. 



Horses know nothmg about balking, only as they are 

 brought into it by improper management ; and when a 

 horse balks in harness, it is generally from some mis- 

 manao-ement, excitement, confusion, or from not know- 

 ing how to pull, but seldom from any unwiUingness to 

 perform aU that he understands. High spirited, free- 

 going horses, are the most subject to balking, and only 

 so because driyers do not properly understand how to 

 manage this kind. A free horse in a team may be so 

 anxious to go, that when he hears the word he will 



