164 THE HORSE 



excitement. Walk slowly after him, and grad- 

 ually ^vork him in the desired direction, and in the 

 end you will get him to do what you want. It 

 may take time, but not half so long as it will if he 

 is upset and frightened or excited. 



If a halter must be used to break in instead of 

 a head -stall, do not forget to knot the slip rope, to 

 prevent, as far as possible, squeezing and chafing 

 the jaws. 



Teaching to Lead 



The next point is to teach the horse to lead. In 

 this connection, and, indeed, throughout the pre- 

 liminary handling, much more rapid and success- 

 ful progress will be made if the breaker makes up 

 his mind to work single-handed and to have no 

 spectators. Xo animal is more suspicious than a 

 young horse — suspicious of every object and every 

 movement. Thus his whole time is spent in 

 closely watching the actions of those around him, 

 and this very peculiarity of his is of the greatest 

 value to the horse-breaker. It is essential that he 

 should follow every movement, and learn to 

 connect each with its proper function in connection 

 with himself, because only in this way does he 

 assimilate and profit by the lessons taught him. 



