The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-03
BaIky Horses.

"What shall do to cure horse OF
the habit of balkingP" is frequent
question which the editor of a farm
paper is called upon to answer The
replies are various, some of them scnsi-
bic and some highly ridiculous. A few
days since we read an unfailing cure in
an English paper. It was to back the
sihorse and cart" under shed and let
the animal stand there until it got ready
to come out. One was so stubborn, it
was said, that it did not come out for
thirty-six hours. 1t is not every man
who has a balky horse who owns cart,
aud what Is to be done under such cir
cumstances Is not related; and often
when horse balks he is with some
other horse that does not balk, and the
English prescription certainly does not
mean that both horses, the willing and
the unwilling, should be backed under q
shed and kept there until the balky
horse gets ready to move. Perhaps if
the ssdose'' once administered should
cure for all time, we could afford to
give it thirty-six hours to work; but If it
had to be administered very frequently
the loss of time would be very expen-
sive. We think such a remedy win
have to be classed with the impractica-
BILE ones. rs
When horse balks, the first thing to
do is to find out what the trouble is, il
that Is possible. When it happens q
few times it becomes habit largely,
but when it first occurs it may be caused
by an in-fitting harness, or some physi-
cal trouble. Sometimes we have no
doubt it is the result of playful spirit,
and IN either of the cases named the ju-.
dicious handling of the animal will
save q world of trouble and prevent the
animal from being ruined. We have
seen horses balk because the collar was
so small that the horse could not draw
without choking itself, or because the
breast-plate, when a preast-plate was
used, had been drawn up until it inter-
ferred with the breathing of the horse.
And in such cases we have sometimes
heard the driver swear until everything
turned blue, and beat the horse shame
fully. He had not sense enough to dis
cover the trouble and TO see that the
horse was in no wise to blame. Ten
chances to one that such treatment will
make q permanently balky horse. In
the first place, therefore, when q horse
first balks, examine carefully everything
about the animal, to ascertain if physi-
cal pain or inconvenience causes the
difficulty, and If such q cause is found,
remove it and the horse will balk no
more. II nothing of this character can
be found, then it is reasonable to sup
pose that the spirit of playfulness OF the
spirit of stubbornness is the cause, and
in either case such methods must be
adopted as viii show the animal that it
is not profitable to show such spirit
while in harness.
1t is well to remember at the very be-
ginning of trouble that If the man
shows no more sense than the horse the
horse will know it, and will have the
best of the contest, upon the principle
that the biggest brute usually whips.
Loud talk and swearing do no good the
exhibition of irritability does no good,
and to show that punishment injudicious-
ly administered is of no avail, we have
seen fires built under balky horses and
seen them whipped until the blood
flowed without accomplishing q particle
of good. We think that calmness and o
show of kindness even in the infirtion
of little cruel treatment, are the secret
of success with balky horses. We have
had balky horses that would indulge
this weakness, for reasons that we could
not determine. Our plan has always
OeeQ 10 snow the dQlLudl that We LuOu8QL
its baking was legitimate part of the
programme which was being performed,
and that if it had not baked we should
have been disappointed. We get out of
the wagon and cody pretend to arrange
something about the harness, as il the
horse had stopped for the express pur-
pose of giving us the opportunity to do
that very thing. Al the while we are
doing this we speak kindly to the ami
NAL, showing it we are not angry or
perplexed, and while that impression Is
being made upon the horse, we calmly
take hold of that sensitive part, the
animals nose, just as if that, too, was q
part of the programme which could not
be missed, and giving it as painful a
twist as possible, bid the animal 60 long
and we have never had it refuse, and
we have never had it invite such per-
formance many times. The horse un-
der such. circumstances seems to feel
that everything that is done appears to
be done because the driver misinterprets
the situation, and it finally concludes
that II the driver cannot understand
things any better there is no use in
"casting pearl before swine," and 80
stops balking.-WesterB Rairal.