Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-09-23

HORSE EDUCATION.
Colts Must Serve an Apprenticeship, On
Stem at s. Time

Colts Must Serve an apprenticeship One
Step at Time.
The education of the colt should be-
gin when it is but few days old. The
first lesson to be taught is that it is
not going to be hurt when handled, and
the next that it is no use to rebel when
it is once caught. If these lessons
are learned thoroughly, the colt loses
all fear of being handled and has i'm
plicit confidence in its teacher. There
is little danger of petting a colt too
much SO long as we avoid teasing or
teaching it bad habits. Kindness and
firmness go hand in hand in all success
full colt training. 1t is the worst sort of
folly to attempt to whip colt into sub
mission.
First in order is halter breaking We
do not consider this lesson complete
when the colt allows itself to be led
slowly across the lot. Let it understand
that it is impossible for it to get away
from you. Il should learn to come to
you rather than fly away when excited
or scared. This it will soon do when it
learns that you want TO protect rather
than abuse it. 1t is a good. idea to lead
it into unfamiliar places and accustom
it to all sorts of strange sights and
sounds as it is able to bear them. 1t is
sure to meet with exciting causes some
time, and it is a part of its training to
learn to control itself and to rely on
your directions at such times. The
trainer should bear in mind that the
colt is not capable of grasping dozen
new things at once. What you say and
want done is as Greek to the colt. If
you give it too big doses it will get con-
fused, ratified and become unmanage-
able. The colt must settle down to a
comfortable acceptance of she inevitable
before anything further is required of it.
Then comes the harness. Our colts
are broken to harness when in their
year1ing FORM A neat fitting harness is
buckled on them securely. The check
rein is allowed TO hang quite loosely at
first, and they are left in roomy box
stall for an hour or two at time for
several days, or until they cease to fret
and have become thoroughly accus-
toned to the harness and bride bit.
quiet walk. Run the lines through the
shaft holders instead of the rings at the
saddle and let the trainer walk behind
and very quietly teach the youngster
Just what is wanted. No whip is al
lowed, for we have found that there is
no need for one, and much harm may
be done to the colt, causing it to kick
or become sullen by the injudioious use
of the same.
We advocate breaking the colts with
an open bride, and never allow the
blind bride to be put on them. We are
confident that colt is less liable to be-
come frightened at objects where he can
see them and by SO doing will learn
that there is nothing that will injure
him. After the colt has been handled
and driven until it is bridlewise it is
then hooked to the breaking cart. If all
the lessons SO far have been we'll learned,
there is very little trouble here, as there
is nothing new for them but the shafts
In few days they go along nicely. The
driver is then sent with them to the
public road. He now rides on level
One mile at a time is sufficient for
quite awhile, but gradually the dis
lance is increased until the colts seem
to improve more rapidly if driven three
or four miles at lesson than when less
exercise is given. One of the greatest
troubles we have is to get the driver to
understand that the colt should not be
driven too fast. To be sure, some of the
yearling record breakers of today go at
what a few years since would have
seemed race horse gait, but as we
have no scientific colt trainer we think
it better to go slow and sure. If the
colts learn readily and take to their
work kindly, they can by the time they
are "a years old be hooked double with
an old steady horse, and with a few
lessons they will trot out at a lively
gait, and if the colt is we'll developed
and strong little track work will not
hurt him. Some persons advise the
breaking of colts to double harness first,
but Gleason, the famous horse trainer,
says always break them singly first, and
since adopting this method we have
had much better success. Mrs. W. W.
Stevens in National Stockman.