182 CONFESSIONS OP A HOESE DEALER. 



effort to resist it ? It should be borne in mind that the 

 appearance of man is probably as strange and alarming 

 to a young colt as the appearance of a lion would be to 

 us if we were to meet him alone and unarmed in the 

 desert. It remains with ourselves to cause our com- 

 panionship with the colt, or the horse in after-years, to 

 be hailed with confidence and pleasure, or regarded with 

 alarm, mistrust, and hatred. 



Illiterate and brutal colt-breakers may say, " What 

 do we care whether a colt fears us, hates us, or loves 

 us ? If he won't go a-head, and face the torturing bit 

 and harassing hand, the spurs will precious sharp make 

 him ; and if he tries to shift me from his back, I'll 

 either show him that he can't or I'll get off and cut 

 him to pieces in the longe." Ey this treatment, the 

 colt may be subdued for a time, but we need not make 

 it a subject of wonder if his temper is spoiled, and that, 

 being provoked to resistance, he will most likely begin 

 to defend himself from the brutality of man, until, by a 

 repetition of such treatment, he will be confirmed in 

 vice, and finally transmit its tendency to posterity. 



Not only racing stock, but colts bred for ordinary 

 purposes, should be accustomed from the very first to 

 be caressed with the hand, and familiarised with the 

 voice of man ; if they never have any cause, they will 

 neither fear nor hate us; but, on the other hand, if 

 they benefit by the sound of our voice, and our en- 

 tering the field where they are gambolling in the 

 pleasures of foalhood, be it only to the extent of a alice 



