Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-03-02
About Baking.

A writer in the Gulden Ruk
makes some very sensible remark.
on this subject. If the education o
the colt has been conducted in &C
cordance with correct principles, he
he will not balk. Baking on the
part OF the colt is, for the most part
the result of the trainers ignorance
or passion. Yelling and whipping
on the part OF the trainer or driver
overlooking, sore shoulders, or ill-fit.
ting collars-these are the causes
that make horses balk. But if you
have horse or colt that balks, while
one cannot, without personal
knowledge of the subject, tell you
wha, to do, we can tell you what no,
to do-never whip. II he won't &C
let him stand still and think it over.
He will very often think better of it
and after few moments reflection
and few losses of the head, go on
OF his own accord. Or if this does
not answer, get out Of the wagon
and pat him and talk to him kindly
A horse is very susceptible to kind
ness; and the writer says he has
known more than one quite vicious
horse soothed into good behavior by
a few gentle pats by lady's gloved
hand on the moist neck and veined
muzzle. Sometimes it is well to
loosen strap or start Il buckle. The
mere act of unchecking and re-check-
ing the animal has sometimes an
swered the purpose. 1t took his at
tention off in another direction
changed the current of his thought
and broke up his purpose and de
termination TO resist. For this same
reason an apple, or bunch Of grass
from the roadside, or a handful OF
oats, or a few kernels of corn, will
often accomplish what an hour OF
beating could never effect.
The truth is, a man must govern
himself before he can hope to govern
lower animals. A man flushed with
passion, his brain charged with heat
ed blood, and eyes blazing with rage
is not in condition to think clearly;
and it is just this thinking clearly
that is, above all else, needed in di-
rectlng and controlling horses
Hence it is that contact with horses
and an actual experience in teaching
them, is one of the finest disciplines
a man can have. He grows to love
the colt he is teaching; and no ma
ture is utterly depraved in which is
going on the exercise of affection, n1
matter how humble the object may
be. His employment makes it nee
essary for him to think; and this
keeps intellect, which might other
wise have no development, alive
The language of the stable is not as
many pious and ignorant people i'm.
agine, all slang. Care and anxiety
are felt in the groom's room, and
consultation held upon the issue OF
which the health of valuable proper.
W utpcIu. ldIlS dIC loIIIICu anu
methods OF procedure adopted, up
on which fame and vast sums OF
money come and go. Faults of ma
ture and errors of education and prac
tice are corrected, and the trainer
discovers that in schooling Gods
creatures he is being schooled him
self. Thus, in all other branches OF
honorable industry, the horseman
discovers that he is the point from
which one current goes forth and an
other enters in. He bestows, and he
receives; he educates, and is educat
ed; and the life which SO many
thoughtless people despise closes, al
in the case of Hiram Woodruff-tht
upright in heart and acts-with hon
or, and fame which can fail onl,
when kindness toward animals ant
integrity among men are regarded
as of no account.