SCARING, OR SCARIFYING, A COLT. 331 



ping. This is a new method of gentling a colt 

 with a vengeance, but not calculated to inspire 

 him with any other feeling than horror of his 

 master; for all the after-caressing in the world 

 will not mdlify the effects of this scarifying— "^Y^i 

 impressions being difficult to efface from the recol- 

 lection of boy or colt when made by birch or pig- 

 whip. Now the most likely consequences of this 

 scaring or scarifying a colt would be to drive him 

 over the stalls, or out through the Avindow ; and I 

 should conceive he Avould ever afterwards retain, 

 not a wholesome, but a wholesale fear of mankind. 

 It is as natural for a horse to kick as it is for a 

 dog to bite those whom they think intending to 

 injure them ; and a colt may kick, and will kick, 

 from fear as much as from any vicious propensity. 

 AVhat then can be said of a system which recom- 

 mends scarifying to make him still more fearful, 

 merely upon the sujoposition of his beino- of a 

 mulish disposition because he lays his ears back ? 

 Now if anything will make a colt kick, it is 

 whipping him about his legs and flank. 



Next fohow instructions " How to halter and 

 lead a colt," in which there is nothing very ob- 

 jectionable, except the holding in your right hand 

 of the aforesaid pig-whip, the very sight of which 

 (if held over his head, as recommended, to assist 



