TRAINING OF HORSES. 109 
halter-stale. . Lead him past the ring asfar as the length 
of the halter will allow, and from the opposite side from 
the halter pull back upon the “ Yankee Bridle,” (see 
Figure 18,) not using at this time any words. Continue 
this until he backs readily at the pull, then begin using 
the word “dack,” and repeat until he understands the 
meaning of the word, and will back upon being told to, 
Do this next in harness, and, if necessary, after he is 
hitched to wagon. There is no difficulty in soon fixing 
the lesson upon his attention so that he will never for- 
get it. . . 
A plan which we once used was to use a rope in 
somewhat the same manner as the “ Yankee Bridle,” 
except that instead of the double-ring bit we had a small 
loop on the end of the rope, which slipped on the under 
jaw. This cord was used by us for a while as we now 
use the “‘ Yankee Bridle ;” but we found it to injure the 
mouth, and in fact we killed one horse in Salem, Mass., 
by its use, and have since discarded it, finding -by ex- 
perience that the bridle of our invention is perfectly 
harmless and more effectual. With the cord alluded to 
we would pull backward upon the horse, at the same 
time lifting up his foot with the “ foot-strap.” 
The two worst horses we have ever met with in our 
travels were broken to back by these means. The first 
one was at’ Brighton, near Boston, Mass., in the spring 
of 1863. This horse was a large, stout animal, which 
for nine years had not been known to back, and all 
efforts to teach him had failed. If put into a stall too 
