CHAPTEE XXX. 



TRAINING VICIOUS HORSES. 



Old English method — Biting, kicking, and balking — Patience and firmness 

 required — Causes of balking — The cord — Isolation — Kicking in 

 harness — Checking — Biting — Rarey's method — War bridle — Pull- 

 ing on the halter — Shying — Pawing in stall. 



THE subjection of vicious horses has been a great considera- 

 tion ever since they were first ridden by man, but until a 

 comparatively recent date has there been but little rational 

 means employed for their subjection. The plans heretofore 

 adopted have generally been too much according to the direc- 

 tions of an English trainer of the time of Queen Elizabeth, 

 who wrote as follows : " If your horse does not stand still or 

 hesitates, then abrate him with a terrible voice ; and beat him 

 yourself with a good stick upon the head between the ears ; 

 then stick him in the spurring place three or four times 

 together with one legg after the other, as fast as your legges 

 might walk ; your legges must go like two bouching beetles." 



To J. S. Earey, an Ohio farmer, is due much of the im- 

 proved methods of handling and management of the horses of 

 to-day. 



Unlike the three mythological graces, attendants of Yenus 

 — Agalara, Thalia, and Euphrosyne ; or of the three Christian 

 graces, — Faith, Hope, and Charity (the greatest of which is 

 Charity), the three vices in horses are biting, kicking, and balk- 

 ing, and the greatest of these is balking. 



Strange as it may appear, I regard kicking as the least of 



these vices ; yet I, at my time of life, do not care to purchase 



a kicker, but if I do I want to know it then and there, that I 



may not afterwards discover it at too great a cost — possibly 



that of life itself. 



(242) 



