244 TRAINING VICIOUS HORSES. 



Horses know nothing about balking until taught it from im- 

 proper management, and when a horse balks it is generally due 

 to some mismanagement, excitement, confusion, or not know- 

 ing how to pull ; and seldom from any unwillingness to per- 

 form his duty. 



High-spirited, free-going horses are the most, subject to 

 balking, and only so .because drivers do not properly under- 

 stand how to manage them. This kind of a free horse in a 

 team may be so anxious to go that when he hears the word he 

 will start with a jump that will not pull the load, but will give 

 him such a severe jerk in the shoulders that he will fly back 

 and stop the other horse ; the teamster will continue this driv- 

 ing without cessation and by the time he has the slow horse 

 started again he will find that the free horse has made another 

 jump forward and again fallen back, and now he has them both 

 balked and so confused that neither of them know what is the 

 matter or how to start the load. Next in such cases will 

 come the cracking and slashing of the driver's whip, until 

 something is broken or he is through with this course of treat- 

 ment. 



It requires a steady pressure against the collar to move a 

 load, and you cannot expect a horse to act with a steady, deter- 

 mined purpose while you are whipping him. Almost any team 

 when first balked will start kindly if allowed to stand for five 

 or ten minutes as though there was nothing the matter, and 

 then speak kindly to them and turn them a little to the right 

 or left so as to get them both in motion before they feel the 

 pinch of the load. 



To break a horse that has been in the habit of balking, you 

 want to commence as with a colt and go slow. Take plenty of 

 time to educate him. First, put him beside a steady and true 

 , horse; have check-reins on them but left loose; tie up all 

 traces and straps so that there will be nothing excitable about 

 the harness ; walk them about as slowly as possible ; stop often 

 and go to the balky horse and gentle him ; do not use the whip 

 at all nor do anything to excite him, but keep him just as 



