36 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
quers immediately. Sometimes he gets very angry, strikes the knee on 
the ground, and otherwise endeavors to get the knee loose. You can 
sit down and look at him at your ease till he gives up. When this 
takes place, let down the horse’s foot, rub his leg, and caress him; let 
him rest a little, and then put the foot up again. Repeat this several 
times, till the horse has learned to walk on three legs. You then put 
the horse into a sulky. Having his foot hitched up, he cannot kick, 
howsoever much he may desire to ; nor can he run away, if ever so 
much inclined. Mr. Rarcy’s theory is, that a horse kicks because he is 
afraid of something behind him, or of the man or other object ap- 
proaching him. And he first incapacitates him from kicking, and then 
accustoms him to whatever he was before in fear of, be this a rattling 
vehicle, or a man’s hand on his heels. A very few hours’ time suffices 
to accomplish this taming of the most vicious brute. 
About Bulky Horses. — Mr. Rarey asserts that the horse knows nothing 
naturally about balking— and that the animal which practices any of 
the various freaks known under this name, does so either because bad 
management has led him into bad habits, or because, though willing to 
obey, he does not comprehend what his master desires of him. tn ail 
these cases, therefore, he maintains that the whip and the loud angry 
voice are entirely out of place, and only make bad worse. If the horse 
balks he is excited. The first thing, therefore, is to go to his head, 
speak to him kindly, pat and smooth him, and thus get him quieted 
down. The whip must not be shown at all. When he is calmed you 
can start your team. It is not a sudden jerk against the collar which 
moves the load, but a steady pressure. All kinds of violence, therefore, 
tend to the wrong course. The object is to start the horses even ; and 
as the balky horse generally plunges first, you are to keep him back 
gently till they can both take the strain together. A quick way to 
accomplish this — but not the surest way, Mr. Rarey says— “is one I have 
myself seen practiced in Ohio. This is, to lift one fore-foot of the balky 
horse, and start the team. As he presses forward, you let him have his 
foot, when he will almost always take the strain with his mate.” A 
better way, according to Mr. Rarey, is to let the lines hang quite slack, 
get the horses calmed down, and then stand in front of them, and turn 
them gently to the right without letting them bring a strain upon the 
traces. From this turn them as gently to the left. By this time they 
will be moving in unison, and, as you turn them again to the right, 
steady them in the collar, and they will go off together easily. If you 
are patient and careful, you can make any horse pull true by this 
management. 
STABLE MANAGEMENT.— The first thing of importance in the treat- 
ment of a horse is the building which is provided for him, or his stable. 
Perhaps the best way of treating the subject is to show what his stable 
ought not to be, and that, unfortunately both for the animal and his 
owner, will be to show what it too generally is. 
In the first place, it ought not to be dark ; and in this respect there 
are but too many proprietors of horses who will, in their practice at 
