BALKINESS AND HOW TO CURB IT. 29 



will giVe his team a breathing spell occasionally while pulling a 

 heavy load. Another thing, if you find your team becoming 

 exhausted and about to give out, it is well to stop them of your 

 own accord j and it is well, too, to give them a few moments 

 rest before encountering a peculiarly difficult part of the route. 



If you have balky horses, it is your own fault, and not the 

 horse's, for if they do not pull true there is some cause for it, 

 and if you will remove the cause the effect will cease. When 

 your horse balks he is excited and does not know what you 

 want him to do. For instance, a young horse that has never 

 been " set '^ in a gully with a load before, is whipped by his 

 owner or di-iver because he does not draw the load out The 

 animal is willing to do what he can, but he does not know how 

 to draw out the load. He tries and finds that it does not move, 

 not knownig that a steadier and stronger pull would do it, and 

 when the lash comes down upon him and he hears the yells of 

 his driver he is frightened, and jumps and rears through fear 

 rather than uglhiess or • balkiness. No better way could pos- 

 sibly be devised to make a horse balky than to beat him under 

 such circumstances. When he gets a little excited, stop him 

 five or ten minutes, let him become calm; go to the balky 

 liorse, pat hun and speak gently to him, and as soon as he is 

 over his excitement, he will, in nine cases out of ten, pull at the 

 word. Aftei you have gentled him a while, and his excitement 

 has cooled down, take him by the bits; turn him each way a 

 few minutes as far as you can ; gentle him a little ; unrein him ; 

 then step before the balky horse, and let the other start first , 

 then you can take them anywhere you wish. A balky horse is 

 always high spirited and starts quick ; half the pull is out before 

 the other starts ; by standing before him the other starts first 

 By close application to this rule, you can make any balky horse 

 pull. If a horse has been badly spoiled you^should hitch him 

 to the empty wagon, and pull it around a while on level ground ; 

 then put on a little load and increase it gradually, caressing as 

 before, and in a short, time you can have a good work horse. 



You might as well attempt to make d horse move a three 

 story building and draw it off, as to get out of a slough with a 

 heavy load, vdien the animal has never been taught by degrees 

 to draw a load out of such places. It is true t^at it is bad 

 policy to unhitch a horse from a load under such circumstances, 

 but it is fi\r worse to beat him an hour and then have to do it. 

 Our way of teaching colts is as follows : We put on light loads^ 

 after they are well broken to a harness, and go into bad places 

 where it requires hard pulling by degrees ; and the animal learas 

 how to draw the load out. He reasons as a man does, thus : 



