1863. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



ers in the uses of the horse Know full well that 

 Zoti^um^^ so of horse nature "as the tw.g is 

 W the tree is inclined." They comprehend 

 that ievenUonisSbetter than cure;" that colts, 

 like children,become vicious from improper asso- 

 ciation, and headstrong and hard to con rol from 

 the neglect or entire omission of early training, 

 and obedience to natural and proper authority. 

 Old style says, If you break the colt young you 

 break his spirit, and without spirit what is your 

 horse worth ? New style replies. If you do not 

 break him when young, you have, too frequently, 

 a ereat bungling, willful brute, instead of a do- 

 cile, ready, and useful horse. Old style rejoins, 

 Our quiet trained colt has " no show" about him, 

 because his spirit has been trained out of him, 

 and what is a horse without show, action, 

 "game !" New style answers, The horse is kept 

 for purposes of utility, mere showy acfion and 

 its admirers notwithstanding. Discerning men 

 are not deceived by mere show— they prefet 

 practical tests. If I train my colt from the time 

 he is a suckling systematically and regularly till 

 he becomes a horse, Ido not break his spirit, but 

 mold and direct it to the useful and practical ser- 

 vices for which he is brtd and raised. In brief, 

 by early handling and training I domesticate the 

 young beast, instead of letting him run nearly 

 wild, and become restive, headstrong, uncontrol- 

 able, and about as difficult to subdue as the wild 

 horse of the Pampas, Tartar, or of the Mexican 

 plains. In point of fact, allowing colts to go un- 

 broken till they are required for full and ardu- 

 ous labor, is little different from, and no im 

 provement upon the horse training habits of Tar- 

 tars or Brazilians themselves. For the seeming 

 wild system involves much cost and labor, which 

 is saved by "letting her— the colts — rip" with- 

 out let or hindrance, till the period of breaking. 

 There is, too, an inconsistency in the routine of 

 our old style horsemen, namely, that while they 

 accuse the advocates of early and gradual train- 

 ing of what is not true — of destroying the spirit 

 of the future horse, by teaching habits df obedi- 

 ence to the colt — they are themselves of necessi 

 ty obliged to do the very thing which they im- 

 pute to early trainers as a fault, that is to sub- 

 due or "break" their spirit when they break 

 their colt, vyhich the early trainer has no 

 occasion to attempt, because he domesticates his 

 colts from the start, and has no semi-wild, ram- 

 pant, restive, fractious animal to break or sub- 

 due. 



Again, domestication is to the horse what civ- 

 ilization is to man, in some sort It is a process 

 which involves constant obedience to necessary 

 practical discipline, as much for his own benefit 

 as that of his associates. But your rnmpant, 

 spirited colt-horse is rtot disciplined, civilized or 

 domesticated ; is, in fact, a semi wild animal, 

 about as much controllable as the hosts feeding 

 on acorns in the woods. This breaking large 

 colts is, in fact, a violent and absurd system, in 

 that it encourages traits and habits in the colt, 

 which it is necessary to repress and subdue in 

 the horse. It necessitates a great change of 

 habit, from a nearly wild condition to one of gen- 

 erally severe discipline and excessive labor, It 

 is, therefore, revolutionary and extreme ; a trans- 



ition from a state practically beyond the influence 

 of domestication, to one designedly subordinate 

 to the discipline of practical life. I thus gener- 

 alize, because I hold to the principle that consis- 

 tency is a "jewel of high value, that theories of 

 correct practice are always consistent with it," 

 for the cogent reason that the practical suggests 

 the the oretical; the facts are results which 

 signify anterior influences ; general results or 

 consequences "imply and indicate causes both 

 immediate and remote," inevitable and insuffi- 

 cient. Ipsi dixits and arbitrary experience are 

 ofno avail, if inconsistent with natural causes 

 and influences. A principle or idea is practical, 

 otherwise chimerical and void of efl^ect. On the 

 general subject, then, I arrive at the conclusion 

 that the old style of practice— it is not a system 

 or method, because it is negative up to its revolu- 

 tionary stage — of breakingcolts— or not breaking 

 them — is inconsistent and absurd in theory, and 

 most uncertain in results. I have seen a good 

 many colts spoiled by professional breakers — 

 lazy, dissipated fellows, about as well suited to 

 training a colt as to teaching astronomy. In 

 this way the untrained battle with the untrained 

 animal, force encounters brute strength, and the 

 stronger wi'l conquers; the result being frequent- 

 ly a vicious, and generally a less valuable and 

 serviceable animal, than early and regular tram- 

 ing — vrithout "breaking," or any habit requiring 

 to be broken — would make or have made of hitn, 

 I have no doubt the observations of others will 

 suppert this view, otherwise by what legerde- 

 main are so many thousands of promising colts 

 so completely and quickly transformed into worth- 

 less horses, as is too truly conspicuous over 

 much of the country ? 



The truth is, breaking colts is radically wrong, 

 is a semi-wild, not a civilized — and no one who 

 has seen it will claim that it is civilizing— prac- 

 tice. It is allowing force to accumulate for the 

 brutal pleasure of the habit — for there can be no 

 advantage — of applying force to subdue it. It is ■ 

 in no sense a custom involving domestication, oi 

 making fit for service, and appears to be merelj 

 an imitation or continuation of the customs ol 

 Tartars and others, who are as wild as the horses 

 they subdue. On the contrary, training fron 

 the colt from a suckling till a horse, is a contin- 

 uous benefit, a constant agency of domestication 

 a preventive discipline, superseding the necessitj 

 of breaking by molding the energies graduallj 

 into habits and qualities that are desirable and 

 useful, and, therefore, do not require to be sub- 

 ject to any " breaking" process, nor any revolu- 

 tionary attempts at subjection or eradication. 



It may possibly be alleged, that training colts 

 instead of allowing them to become half wild, 

 and then calling in some wise-acre — who never 

 read a line, or devoted an hour to animal physi- 

 ology in his life — to pubdue or break their spirit 

 and reduce them to obedience by force, would 

 deprive us of the professional services of many 

 distinguished persons ; but for one, I should es- 

 teem the removal of all occasion for colt breaking, 

 no greater loss than the services of the constable 

 or hangman ; it were better for all if each were 

 better employed. It is, however, certain, that 

 no one can be so fit to train a colt to service, as 



