CURE OF VICES 61 



horse. He may never run again, but safety 

 should be your motto and there is no bit so good 

 for holding a horse. It has also the great ad- 

 vantage of being an easy bit for the horse as long 

 as he does not pull upon it — and this is a note- 

 worthy feature, as you can never cure a vice or 

 a bad habit if your means of correction are oper- 

 ative at other times than when the vice is ex- 

 hibited. 



I have purchased and used quite a number of 

 runaway horses and have never had much trouble 

 with them. Sometimes the inclination to run 

 would show itself a little at intervals and, more 

 frequently, it seemed to become wholly eliminated. 

 But in the use of horses on the road there is often 

 more to rearouse this vice than some others and 

 I would repeat my recommendation that the use 

 of the four-ring bit and over-draw check-rein be 

 never discontinued on a runaway. 



BALKING 



Balking is not a dangerous vice, but of all equine 

 short-comings, it is perhaps the most intensely 

 aggravating. And yet the old proverb that 

 " there is always good stuff in a balky horse " has 

 some truth in it. Horses of superabundant nerv- 

 ous energy are the kind that are by far the most 



