Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-12-29
#iseelIa,aepMs.
KIND TREATMENT BAsIsHEs FEAR.

With the generality of. colts, treated as
they mostly are, their wildness Is the first
stumbling block in the way of the breaker.
Till this is got over no good can be got
from them. Then their natural timiditv
has to be assuaged; for, though horse
may be made to do some things by force
and punishment, we can teach him nothing
while in state of alarm. So long a. this
lasts, all his energies are employed in re-
sistance, or endeavoring to get away. The
hare, as timid an animal az any in nature,
can be brought to fire a pistol without
evincing, or probably feeling, the slightest
alarm but at the commencement Of her
tuition all the punishment we could inflict
would not induce her to remain quiet at
the slightest flash Of the pan. We have
no greater right to expect colt to permit
even a surcingle to be put on him without
resisting or being alarmed at it, if done
FOR the first time, unless he has been
reared in that confidence with us that he
never expects injury at our hands. This
the colt, brought up wild, naturally does
expect, and as naturally resists.
Cows, with now and then an exception,
are all tame even when we find one that
is not, depend upon it some extraordinary
circumstance, either in her rearing OF
after usage, mas occasioned her to become
otherwise. The calf, on leaving the
mother, is as tame as herself, and would
remain SO if the same treatment was con-
tinued; but if it is suffered to remain in
pasture instead Of being daily brought
into intercourse with man. it becomes
wild. Probably, from having been ac-
customed to follow the mother home, it
still wishes and attempts to do so. How
isits wish to continue on good terms with
us rewarded?
IL is driven back with shouts, and,
should it succeed in joining the her,i, its at
tempts at domestication are probably re-
paid by hedge-stake to prevent recur-
renee of them. Can we wonder if it af-
forwards both fears and hates man
Yet the moment the times comes when
this same animal is wanted for his
use, it is expected to stand meekly to be
MIXED by, perhaps, the very savage it has
just reason to dread; if it does not, it is
tied up, and probably the hedge-stake is
again applied. Need we be surprised at
seeing SO many animals with knobs on
their horns, or board across their faces
tenn is permitted to be practiced with valu-
'NoAC SOAeo ouc ~ 10 III pIOtty SChOi0i uSC
with ordinay ones. No wonder, then,
breakers are wanted when this is the case.
But though none of this is allowed with
the high-bred colt. or anything done to
purposely frighten him, not one-tenth part
is done that ought to be done to render
him familiar. Horses are by nature more
active than cows, and more disposed to
gallop about. This only arises from gal
Looping being less trouble to them than to
the less active animal; but the an,ipathy
to, or fear of. man exists no stronger in
the one animal than in the other when in
a wild state. The highest bred, the hard
est pulling, and most determined filly that
ever bolted with rider when in q state of
irritability and excitement-the very fire.
quent result of severe training and racing
can be made, if properly treated when
permitted to lead life of quiet and re-
pose, as familiar and docile as the veriest
COW in existence and the colt as any calf
that ever lived the pet Of a cottage family.
Such we maintain, is the state to which all
mares and colts should be brought, and
particularly valuable ones.-Cor. Stock
Journal. s.e~r