HABIT RENDERS MOST THINGS EASY. 227 



wonderfully altered by their tendency being counter- 

 acted in very early youth ; but, if left to become firm 

 and rigid, are fixed and immoveable ; and then let the 

 mouth be as good as it may, and the colt as willing 

 as we could wish him to obey the bit and hand, he 

 can no more carry his head in the position of some 

 other horse than he can make himself the same colour 

 if he is a difi^erent one. By beginning as early as I 

 recommend putting the bit and reins on, we perceive 

 their probable effect, and see at once the tendency the 

 colt has to any particular carriage. Taking it in this 

 early stage, we may bend it to what we like : the very 

 bones in their sockets may be brought to unnatural 

 pliability by beginning early. Any itinerant tumbler 

 daily shows us this ; but the beginning must be made 

 in the nursery, as I would make it with my colt. 



By getting the colt so early into use — though of 

 course I do not mean into work — we get a cor- 

 responding early knowledge of his propensities, be 

 they good or bad, whether they relate to temper, 

 mouth, or action. To get this it is by no means neces- 

 sary to require any exertion on his part unfitted to 

 his age. The being accustomed to feel a bit in the 

 mouth is none ; nor is it, to learn to bear being light- 

 ly borne up, or standing a short time on the pillar- 

 reins ; but all this makes him amenable to restraint ; 

 and that restraint being slight and of short duration, 

 and brought on by almost imperceptible degrees, he 

 learns to submit to as a matter of course. I am quite 

 aware that numbers of horses are ruined by being put 

 to work too early ; but this arises, not from being put 

 simply to work, but from being put to improper work. 

 There is a degree of exertion even the yearling is 

 capable of; and if the two, three, and four years old 



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