The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-01-09
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.


As to the matter of ''balking," no general
directions can be given, or rule established.
If the education of the colt has been conduct
ed in accordance with correct principles, he
will not balk. Baking on the part of colt
is, for the most part, is the result of the
trainers ignorance or passion. Yelling and
whipping on the part of the trainer or driver,
overlooking, sore sholders, or ill-fittiDg col
lars,-these are the causes that makes horses
balk. But if you have horse or colt that
balks, while one cannot, without personal
knowledge of the subject, tell you what to do,
we can tell you what not to do.-never whip.
If he won't 60, let him stand still and think
it over. He viii! very often think better of it,
and after few moments reflection, and
few losses OF the head, 60 on of his own &C.
cord. 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; we have known more than one quite
vicious horse gentled into good behavior by
few pats from lady's gloved hand on the
moist neck and mussle. Sometimes it
is we'll to loosen strap or start
buckle. We have known the mere act of
unchecking and rechecking the animal an
swer the purpose. 1t took his attention off
in another direction, you see, changed the
current OF his thoughts, and broke up his
purpose and determination 10 resist. For
the same reason an apple, or bunch of grass
from the roadside, or handful of oats, or a
few kernels of corn, will often accomplish
what an hour of beating could never effect.
The truth is, man must govern himself
before he can hope to govern lower animals.
A man flushed with passion, his brain charg-
ed with heated blood, and eyes blazing with
rage, is not in condition to think clearly:
and it is just this thinking clearly and moth
ing else, needed in directing 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. He grows to love the colt he is teach
ing: and no nature is utterly depraved in
which is going on the exercise of affection.
no matter how humble the object may be-.
His employment makes it necessary for him
to think: and this keeps intellect, which
might have otherwise have no development
alive. The language of the stable is not, as
many pious and ignorant people imagine, all
slang. Care and anxiety are felt in the
groom's room, and consultations held upon
the issue of which the health and safety of
valuable property depend, Plans are formed
and methods of procedure adopted, upon
which fame and vast sums of money come
and 90. Faults of nature and errers of edu-
cation and practice are corrected, and the
trainer discovers thai in schooling Gods
creatures he is being schooled himself, Thus,
as in all other branches ofbonorable industry,
the horse man discovers that he is the point
from which one current goes forth and
another enters in. He bestows, and he
receives; he educates, and is educated; and
the life which so many thoughtless people des-
pise closes, as in the case Of Hiram Wood
rrff-the upright in heart and act-with
honor, and fame which can fail only when
kindness towards animals and integrity among
men are regarded as of no account.-Golder
Rule.