224: HALTER -PULLING. 



would cause him to jump ahead, surprised and frightened. I soon 

 learned, however, that a stubborn horse accustomed to the habit, 

 would quickly learn to pull against it, or pull as bad as ever when 

 it was taken off. I also found that it was apt to make the tail so 

 sore that there was not only liability to cause the horse to kick 

 when pulled upon, but afterward, should the rein be caught under 

 the tail, or he be otherwise irritated. 



I then devised the plan of making a noose of the cord, and 

 placing it well back around the body, bringing both cords forward 

 between the legs, and through the hole in the manger, thence back 

 to the halter, and fasten. Thus two important improvements were 

 made ; namely, the serious objection of making the tail sore was re- 

 moved ; and^instead of tying directly to the post or manger, pass- 

 ing it through the ring or hole in the manger, and tying to the hal- 

 ter back of the jaw, the restraint was brought directly upon the head 

 as if ordinarily hitched, but with the advantage of greatly disabling 

 and punishing, while the horse could not. strain or injure himself in 

 the least, no matter how hard he pulled. t 



If the subject were a colt^ the moment there was an effort to 

 pull, the sudden tightening of the cord around the body frightened 

 and hurt him so much that it compelled an instantaneous jumping 

 ahead, and after repeating two or three times, all inclination to pull was 

 entirely overcome. It was necessary to hitch him in this way only a 

 few times, when he could be tied by the halter directly, without 

 knowing it was possible to pull. If while hitched in this manner he 

 was frightened by a robe, or a piece of paper coming suddenly in 

 front of him, he was soon convinced of his inability to pull loose, 

 and consequently the inclination to do so was broken up. 



For especially bad, sullen pullers; however, I found this was 

 not of itself sufficient to break up the habit. It was easy, of course, 

 to prevent the horse from pulling while the rig was on, but when 

 taken off, and the horse tied as usual by the halter, there was lia- 

 bility of his again repeating the pulling. To overcome this diffi- 

 culty, I was led to the expedient, when there was an effort to pull, 

 of inflicting such intense pain as to disconcert the horse from his 

 purpose, even while under the greatest excitement, and on this point 

 I was successful. To give something of an idea how I was led to do 

 this, I will refer to a chance incident : — 



Two colts that pulled very hard upon the halter — one of them 

 desperately — were brought me to experiment upon. The one that 

 pulled the worst provoked me so much by his intense pulling, that 

 to frighten him out of it I whipped him very hard upon the tip of 



