246 BALKING. 



bad horse. Tying the tail to the cross-piece will fre- 

 quently start him, as a horse will always pull by the tail. 

 Blindfolding is one of the simplest and best methods of 

 starting a stubborn balker. After being blindfolded, he 

 should be allowed to stand a few minutes, then move him 

 right and left a few times, say, encouragingly, Get up, and 

 the horse will usually pull steadily against the collar and 

 move off all right. Tying up the fore leg, and compelling 

 him to stand on three legs till tired, will usually be a very 

 effectual means of starting a balker, and frequently after a 

 few repetitions it will break up the habit. This method 

 works best on nervous, impulsive horses. 



A MAINE MAN'S METHOD. 



" When a horse balks, take him out of the shafts, tie 

 the bridle rein into the tail short enough to bring his body 

 into a half circle, and make him go around four or five 

 times. This will make him dizzy ; then put him in shafts 

 and he will go off all right. If one lesson will not break 

 him, repeating it will be sure to do so." 



This is not so ; it is nothing more than merely pallia- 

 tive, which will, it is true, frequently enable starting a balk- 

 ing horse, but is not by any means adequate for breaking up 

 the habit. It will be seen farther on that it is part of my 

 regular treatment for this habit. I invented it and taught 

 it in that State nearly twenty years ago ; and the idea of 

 managing balky horses in this way was given by me as a 

 simple method of starting the horse, not of breaking up the 

 habit. 



A mare in the habit of balking, although occasionally 

 driving well for weeks at a time, one day got into one of 

 her balking tantrums. Her owner, becoming angry, de- 

 termined to kill her. Taking a gun from the hands of a 

 sportsman who happened to be standing near, he fired the 



