246 TRAINING VICIOUS HORSES. 



all cases, is yet to be discovered, but here is a remedy that in 

 my experience has rarely failed : 



Tie a small rope or cord in one ring of the bit ; pass it under 

 the upper lip and over the teeth, then out through the ring on 

 the opposite side. When all is ready to start the horse, give 

 the end of the rope a firm, sudden, but not violent, jerk ; that 

 is all. The horse will usually go. There is a sensitive mem- 

 brane connecting the upper lip with the gum which the rope, 

 when jerked, lacerates. This may seem cruel, but the stinging 

 pain is but momentary and the after effects but slight. Too 

 rude a jerk might destroy the membrane entirely, so that the 

 same method could not be used again with so good effect. 

 Consequently this, as all other methods of subjecting and train- 

 ing the horse should be skillfully applied. In cases where I 

 have used the rope successfully no blood was ever found either 

 on the rope or in the mouth of the horse. 



Away back in the fifties, when quite a young man, I was 

 conceited enough to believe myself smart enough to swap 

 horses and hold my own with the average horse jockey of those 

 days ; the result was that I occasionally got more in a horse 

 than I had bargained for or had even anticipated getting, and 

 among which would be an occasional chronic balker. I dis- 

 tinctly recollect on one occasion of purchasing a large bay 

 mare, sound and apparently all right, but which was so much 

 opposed to the draft family as to consider it far beneath her 

 mission on earth to handle any load more than a buggy or, at 

 most, a family carriage. Consequently, when I had hitched 

 her to a light load of fence-rails she utterly refused to take any 

 stock in their transportation. Being, myself, at that time of 

 life, quite hasty in disposition, and possessed of considerable 

 "push" as well as impatience, I naturally enough, perhaps,, 

 felt much annoyed at the turn affairs had taken, and especially 

 so as it was a very busy time of year with me — as I was a 

 farmer — and I did not wish to be delayed in my plans ; conse- 

 quently, I attempted to reform " the old jade " right then and 

 there by vigorously applying the whip, and after using up the 



