River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-01-25
HOUSE, FARM AND sGARDEN.
About "Balking .

HOUSE, FARM AND aGARDEN.
About Baking"
A writer in the Golden Rule makes
some very sensible remarks on this
subject. If the education of the colt
has been conducted in accordance with
correct principles he will not balk.
Baking on the part of the colt is, for
the most part, The result of the train
er's ignorance or passion. Yelling and
whipping on the part of the trainer or
driver, overlooking, sore shoulders, or
ill-itting collars-these are the causes
| that make horses balk. But if you
have horse or colt that balks, while
/ one cannot, without personal knswl-
edge of the subject, tell you what to
do, we can tell you what not to do :
never whip. If he won't go let him
stand still and think it over. He will
very often think better of it, and after
a few moments reflection and a few
losses of the head go on of his own ac-
cord. Or if this does not answer, get
out of the wagon and pat him and talk
to him kindly. A horse is very sus-
eeptible to kindness: and the writer
says he has known more than one quite
vicious horse soothed into good behav-
Tor by a few gentle pats by lady's
gloved hand on the moist neck and
veined muzzle. Sometimes it is well
to loosen a strap or start a buckle.
The mere act of unchC cking and re-
checking the animal has sometimes
answered. the purpose. 1t took his at.
tention off in another direction, chang
ed the current of his thought, and
broke up his purpose and determina-
ton to resist. For this same reason
an apple, or bunch of grass from the
roadside, or handful of oats, or few
kernels of corn, will often accomplish
what an hour of beating could never
effect.
The truth is, man III overn
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 a condition to think clearly );
and it is just this thinking clearly
that is, above all else, needed in di-
recting and controlling horses. Hence
it is that contact with horses, and an
actual experience in teaching them, is
one of the finest disciplines man can
have. lie grows to love the colt he is
teaching and no nature is utterly de-
PRAYED in which is going on the exer-
else of affection, no matter how hum
bic the object may be. His employ
ment makes it necessary for him to
think: and this keeps intellect, which
might otherwise have no develop
ment, alive. The language of the
stable is not. as many pious and igno-
rant people imagine, all slang. Care
and anxiety are felt in the grCom's
room, and consultation held upon tie
issue of which the health ard safety
of valuable property depend. Plans
are formed and methods of procedure
adopted, upon which fame and vast
sums of money come and go. Faults
of nature and errors of education and
practice are corrected, and the trainer
discovers that in schooling Gods crea-
lures he is being schooled himself.
Thus, in all other branches of honor
able industry, the horseman discovers
that he is the point from which one
current goes forth and another enter S
in. He bestows, and he receives; he
educates, and is educated and the life
which SO many thoughtless people de-
spise closes. as in the case of Hiram
Woodruff-the upright in heart and
acts-with honor, and "A fame which
can fail only when kindness toward
animals and integrity among men are
regarded as of no account.