Chapter x. 



STAL.LIOHS. 



THERE is no class of horses that require more careful manage- 

 ment than stallions. They have more intelligence than other 

 horses, and are quicker to take advantage when carelessness or 

 weakness is shown. They are also more courageous in their re- 

 sistance. In addition, the character of their resistance -r biting and 

 striking — is far more difficult to combat. Mistakes can be made in 

 breaking mares and geldings without doing much more harm than 

 to increase the labor of their subjection ; but in subduing a stallion, 

 a mistake, or even slight, carelessness, is in many cases fatal to suc- 

 cess. The whip should never 

 be used upon a horse of this 

 character ; for there is great 

 danger, if at all spirited or cou- 

 rageous, of his becoming in con- 

 sequence aggressive and vicious. 

 A young horse that is very 

 gentle, allowing himself to be 

 handled and caressed around 

 the head, etc., can, by bad treat- 

 ment, easily be made so vicious 

 that his whole character is 

 changed. A great many cases 

 of this kind have come under 

 my observation. At one time, 

 a gentleman who had previously, 

 attended one of my lectures, 

 told me that he and his brother owned a fine stallion in company. 

 The horse was naturally quite gentle, but one day his brother, 

 becoming impatient with him, hit him sharply with the whip; the 

 result was the horse ever afterward held such an antipathy against 

 him that he could not safely go near or handle him in any way, 

 while toward himself the horse was perfectly gentle. 



The " Gifford^Morgan Horse," sold to Fred Arnd, of Bath, Nl Y., 

 and mentioned in the last part of this chapter, is a striking case 



Pig. 279.— Portrait from Life of Old Hamble- 



tonian, Sire of the Hambletonian 



Trotters. 



