avery's own farrier. 231 



draw without hurting him. The colt seldom refuses to 

 pull the first time he is harnessed; but by overloading to 

 see how much he can draw when his breast is tender, he 

 bruises it with the collar by drawing too hard, making 

 it sore, so that the second or third time you harness him, 

 he refuses to pull because it hurts him to do so, and then 

 he flinches and flies back; then, according to the old 

 method of treatment, he must be flogged into it or he 

 will be balky; and nine to one if he does not form habits 

 in this way that he never forgets, and especially when 

 he happens to be placed in like circumstances. 



There is more truth than poetry in the philosopher's 

 remark, that a colt was never broken only on one side 

 at a time. For you may first break him to have the har- 

 ness laid on from^ the near or left side without fear (as 

 we generally do), but if you approach him with it on 

 the off or right side, he is as shy of it as though he had 

 never been harnessed. For this reason people have 

 sometimes been greatly disappointed in trying to catch 

 their horse in the pasture by going up to him on the 

 wrong side, and when they thought they had their hand 

 almost on him, why, he was gone, and then comes the 

 chase. Then you break a horse to step into the thills 

 from the near side to your liking, and he knows nothing 

 about going in from the off side. And so it is in learn- 

 ing him to take his place on either side of the pole, or 

 another horse; and he is as awkward when you wish 

 him to change sides as though he had never seen either. 

 Therefore, in breaking a horse, he should be used to 

 having the harness placed over him from either side, and 

 be learned to take his place on either side of the pole, 



