The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



that he may be prepared to keep the leading 

 rein slack in both eventuahties. Then direct 

 Disciple with your voice " Right turn " and 

 pull the appropriate rein, " Left turn " ditto, 

 and " Forward " when you want him to keep 

 straight ahead. In a very few minutes he 

 will have absorbed this new line of instruction 

 quite intelligently, and you can dispense with 

 the leading rein. Give him another day's 

 practice at this, and he will then be ready to 

 learn to pull. 



The easiest way to teach a horse to pull is 

 to get two men to haul on the traces, lengthen- 

 ing each with about 10ft. of rope, so that the 

 men remain behind you. At first they should 

 carry the ropes and traces quite slackly, with- 

 out any pull on them. You will first go 

 through the previous day's operations of 

 starting, stopping and turning with everything 

 slack. When you first give the horse the 

 word to " Pull," tell your men to put only a 

 little drag on the traces ; just sufficient to keep 

 them taut. The next time you say " Pull," 

 let them put more drag on ; and subsequently 

 gradually increase the drag, until they are 

 putting all their weight on to the horse. Take 

 care that the weight is increased very gradually, 

 so that there is no hazard of a refusal on the 

 part of Disciple. If you get him to under- 

 stand that you want him to pull, on the word, 

 he will do so cheerfully ; but there is some 



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