TRAINING VICIOUS HORSES. 243 



"When we come to think of it, is it a wonder that we have 

 among us so many unsafe and unreliable horses? There is 

 probably no one thing that people are more conceited about 

 than the matter of handling horses. Our city lady friend will 

 tell us that she can drive a horse, for while she was out in the 

 country she drove the hay-cart to the field twice. Pat can 

 drive, because he " follied a horse in the auld counthry above 

 foive years." " Old Jehu " can surely drive for he was 

 "brought up among horses." John Bull knows all about 

 "'orses," for he has seen the "big uns in Liverpool," while 

 Snob has proved his skill by passing every rig on the Brighton 

 road. 



And yet the majority of the self-sufficient ones would come 

 nearer the truth if they used the language of a " green hand " 

 I once had — a recent importation from the Emerald Isle — 

 who, on being questioned as to his ability, replied : " Yes, faith 

 and I can drive him just wherever he has a moind to go." 



It is owing more to the natural intelligence of the horse 

 than to the care and judgment of the driver in many cases that 

 serious accidents are averted. 



BALKING. 



It is rarely that we find a balky horse that is not a good 

 one. They are usually very hardy, high-spirited, quick, com- 

 prehensive, and of a strong nervous temperament. A balky 

 driver often makes a balky horse. In handling colts and 

 horses the trainer or driver should never lose his temper ; but 

 if he should, from any cause, happen to do so he should not let 

 the animal know it. 



I once had a neighbor in Pomfret, Conn., — Bufus Pike — 

 who was quite a successful colt-breaker or trainer. I have 

 often heard him remark that he frequently became very much, 

 tried and annoyed by the foolishness and stubbornness of colts 

 in training, and that as he was himself a nervous and high- 

 tempered man he often got pretty mad, but that he never 

 dared let the colt know that he was mad. 



