As has been frequently remarked before in this volume, the horse is not a very intelligent animal. Nor has he any of that natural affection and fidelity that is so remarkable in the dog. This being the case—and it is so no matter what the sentimentalists who know nothing about the subject may say—the training of a young horse is a thing requiring much patient intelligence on the part of the person who undertakes the job. But this patience is rewarded if the young horse have qualities that are worthy of development. I fancy that seven horses out of ten in the United States are broken before their training begins. This means, in my opinion, that a large percentage of a horse’s value is deliberately thrown away in the very beginning of his career of usefulness. A horse broken is a horse half spoiled. The “Broncho Buster” is the typical horse breaker. Those who have not been on the frontier have seen the Broncho Buster’s methods in the Wild West circuses. A young horse or a wild horse is saddled and bridled. A Rough Rider mounts and stays on the back of the young thing until the animal is conquered and subdued through fear and fatigue. This brutal method of treating young horses used to be universal in America. That so much of it should still be done is not complimentary to the intelligence and kindliness of American horse owners. It is about on a par with the treatment that weak-minded persons received a century or so ago. They were beaten and maltreated and kept in order by cruelty and harshness—ruled, indeed, by the fear of those who should have treated them with the most patient kindness. When the spirit is taken out of a horse by his early handling, we can never hope to develop his small intelligence very far, or to guide his instincts in the right direction. While a horse’s intelligence is of a low order, he has a fine memory. His fear being aroused in the beginning, he remains afraid, and is controlled by his fear alone—his fear of being hurt. This always seemed to me a cowardly way of acting, for the horse is one of the most timid of all animals. To beat a horse is about as noble as to beat a child.

The breeders of good horses are pretty generally giving up the rough methods of breaking. Their horses are too valuable to be trifled with in this way. There are some horses that are naturally vicious. With them the gentle method will not accomplish the desired result. They have to be conquered in another way. When this is the case, I much prefer the Rarey method. Rarey so fashioned a harness that he could cast a horse the moment that a horse disobeyed. After a horse has been thrown a few times he usually comes to the conclusion that obedience is the safer plan. There is nothing cruel in the Rarey method and with bad horses it is much to be preferred to the brutal breaking style. The horse is not hurt, he is merely surprised at the result of his own waywardness.

The Arabs handle their horses from the time they are foaled, so that they are from the beginning accustomed to men, women and children and all the other things common to a human habitation. That is the way all young horses should be treated. To be sure this involves a good deal of work and many think that it does not pay, so they turn their colts out and let them get two or three years old before anything is done with them. This is as wise as to let a boy run wild and uninstructed until a year or so before he is bidden to go forth and earn his own living. When a colt is accustomed to persons and not afraid of being touched or led, only patience and intelligence is required to complete his education without any fight or contest whatever.

Before the colt is a year old it should be accustomed to the cavesson while running in a paddock, and when a year old it should be practised on the lunge, a rein of fifteen feet long attached to the nose-piece of the cavesson. This is a head-collar with a metal nose-band, upon the front and each side of which are rings. To the front ring the leather lunge is fastened and from the side rings straps will be buckled to a surcingle or girth at such lengths as will prevent the colt from extending the face much beyond the perpendicular. The colt should then be led about, stopping and starting, time and time again until it has some comprehension of the word of command. The feet should be lifted so that the colt realizes that the trainer has no intention to do him harm. After good terms have been established the colt should be practised on the lunge, the trainer standing in the center of a circle, and letting the colt walk first and then trot slowly around the circumference of the circle—first to the right, then to the left. These short lessons should be given every day. Soon a colt enjoys the exercise, evidently thinking it play. If it be a driving horse that is being trained, harness should soon be added so that the colt will not be afraid of it, and also a light bridle with a snaffle-bit or, better still, a leather bit. If it be a saddle-horse that is being trained, the lunging and bitting should continue until the colt is passed two years old before he is saddled or mounted.

Suppose we take the saddle-horse first. Two-year-old colts are often trained by light weight riders. At three their serious education is continued, and at four they are given their accomplishments. The colt, after being practised on the lunge, should be taught somewhat the meaning and the purpose of the bit before he is mounted. Patience and gentleness to the end that fear may be banished will enable a trainer to get a colt into such an acquiescent condition that when the rider finally gets into the saddle the colt accepts the innovation with nothing exceeding a mild surprise. The saddle should be used in the lunge exercise several times before a man mounts. Some recommend that a weight, such as a bag of meal, be tied into the saddle towards the end of the lunge exercises so that the colt will get used to weight on the back. This is not a bad idea. Before the rider mounts the first time, the stirrups should be pulled down and pressure be put upon them so that the colt may feel the weight of the saddle. When the foot of the rider is first put into the stirrup he should raise himself very gently, the left hand being in the mane of the colt. After bearing all his weight a few seconds in the stirrup he should return to the ground without taking his seat in the saddle. This he should repeat several times, the number of times depending upon how the colt acts. At any rate, this half-mounting should be continued until the colt is no longer disturbed by it. Then the rider may take his seat in the saddle. This should be done as quietly as possible. He should sit in the saddle a few minutes and then dismount. The mounting and dismounting should continue until the colt is accustomed to it. This will not be long if everything be done easily, slowly and gently. An awkward man has no business in trying to train a saddle-horse. A flop into the saddle would, naturally, frighten a colt and defeat the purpose in view. When the colt has become used to a rider in the saddle the rider should close his legs against the sides of the colt, draw a slight tension on the reins, and induce the colt to go forward in a walk. There should be nothing but the walk in the first few lessons. In them, however, the colt should be taught the meaning of the bit so that he could be guided in whatever direction the rider wishes. In nine times out of ten a colt that has been treated as I have described will be quiet and do what is asked of him without any excitement. If the colt does get excited then the whole work will have to be done over and over, with more patience and more gentleness, until the colt acquiesces. It is most important that all these first steps be taken quite slowly, otherwise the colt will get hot and excited, and then may come a fight which is the thing most to be avoided. I can see a rough rider turning up a scornful nose at these admonitions. Very well! Be scornful as much as you choose, I am not writing about the training of a broncho, but of a horse fit for a gentleman to ride.

After the mounted colt goes quietly in the walk, then he should be trotted gently, and if the rider is a light weight, cantered, too. But as a two-year-old work should be very light—play, indeed. At three years old the colt may be confirmed in his gaits, but not worked a great deal harder than at two. At four years old the colt is ready for the finishing touches and the beginning of his life work. But he is not nearly up to the hard work of which he should be capable between six and sixteen.

Trainers of colts for driving hitch them up when they are yearlings, and drive them a little to a low cart built with long shafts and running out behind. Before being hitched up, however, he is harnessed and driven around with a pair of long reins, being guided by the driver to one way and another, and being stopped and started at the word of command. When the colt is harnessed to the cart a strong kicking strap should be used. A few lessons a week driven in such a cart will work wonders so that when the colt is two years old there will be no difficulty in driving him in an ordinary road cart. In driving a colt the same precautions should be used as in training a colt for the saddle—it should not be frightened or treated roughly.

It is probably more important to accustom a young driving horse than a riding horse to the sights and sounds that are likely to be encountered on the road. Here, too, patience and gentle firmness are amply rewarded. Whenever I see a driver thrashing a young horse to compel him to go by an automobile or a trolley car or some other strange and fearsome thing, I have a desire to get the whip and apply it to the driver. Such treatment of a horse is not only cruel, but it is utterly foolish. The horse is frightened at what he sees. He is afraid that in some way it will hurt him. And why should he not be? These devil wagons are frightful enough in appearance to scare a less timid animal than a horse. There is only one course to pursue. Teach the horse that the automobile or other frightful machine will not hurt him. Do this, not with the whip, not with shouts and execrations, but by leading the horse up to the offending machine until he realizes that it is not some monster of destruction. Patience and sense will prevent almost any horse from acquiring bad and dangerous habits of shying and bolting. Curing a horse of established habits is quite another and a different thing. It is like reforming the dissolute or regenerating the depraved. The horse, however, is not blameworthy. These bad habits are always the result of foolishness on the part of some man. The sensible course is not to permit a horse to acquire bad habits. This is a thousand times easier than curing them. Patient firmness and gentle insistence will prevent bad habits in all save those that are fools. A fool horse is too worthless to bother about.