Balking

As to the matter oí " balking," no general direction can be given, or rule established. If the eduoation of the colt has been conduoted in acoordance with the principies I have in previous pages laid down, he will not bal,k. Bulking on the part of colts is, i'or the most part, the result of the trainer's ignorance or passion. Telling and whipping on the part of the trainer or driver, over-loading, sore shoulders, or ill-fitting ccllars - these are the causes that makehorses balk. But if you have a norse or colt that balks, while I canuot, without a personal knowledgo of the subject, teil you what to do, I can teil you what not to do - never whip. If he wou'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 tosses of his head, go on of his own accord. Or, if this does not answcr, get out of the wagon and pat him, and talk to him kindly. A horse is very susceptible to kindness : and I have known more than one quite vicious horse gentlcd into good behavior by a few pats f rom a lady's gloved hand on the moist neck and veined muzzle. Sometimes it is well to loosen a strap or start a buckle. I have known the mere act of unchecking and rechecking the animal answer the purpose. It took his attention off in another direction, you see, changed the current of his thought, and broke up his purpose and dotermination to resist. For this same reason, an apple, or a bunch of grass froin 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 hecau hope to govern lower animáis. A man flushed with passion, his brain charged with hoated 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 directing and controlling horses. Henee it is, that contact with horses, and an actual experience in teaching theui, ia one of the finest disciplines a man can have. He grows to love the colt he is teaching; and no nature is utterly depraved in which is going on the exercise of affection, 110 matter how humble the object of it may be. His einployment rnakes its necessary for him to think; and this keeps intellect, which might otherwise have no development, alive. The language of the stable is not, as many pious and religious people imagine, all slang. Care and anxiety are feit in the grooin's room, andconsultations held upon the issue of which the health and safety of valuable property depend. Plans are formed, and inethods of procedure adopted, upon which faine, 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 God's creatures, he is being schooled hiuiself. ïhus, as in all other branches of honorable industry, the horseman discovers that he is the point from which one current goes f'orth, and another enters in. He bestcws, and he receives; he tducates, and is educated ; and the life which so many tho'ightless pcople despise, closes, as in the case of Hiran Woodruff - the upright in heart and ac - with honor, and a lame which can fai only when kindness toward animáis, anc intsgrity among men, are regarded as o jlirí)ipii