If you should want to lead your colt by the side of another horse, as is
often the case, I would advise you to take your horse into the stable,
attach a second strap to the colt’s halter, and lead your horse up
alongside of him. Then get on the broken horse and take one strap around
his breast, under his martingale (if he has any on), holding it in your
left hand. This will prevent the colt from getting back too far;
besides, you will have more power to hold him with the strap pulling
against the horse’s breast. The other strap take up in your right hand
to prevent him from running ahead; then turn him about a few times in
the stable, and if the door is wide enough, ride out with him in that
position; if not, take the broken horse out first, and stand his breast
up against the door, then lead the colt to the same spot, and take the
straps as before directed, one on each side of his neck, then let some
one start the colt out, and as he comes out, turn your horse to the
left, and you will have them all right. This is the best way to lead a
colt; you can manage any kind of colt in this way, without any trouble;
for if he tries to run ahead, or pull back, the two straps will bring
the horses facing each other, so that you can very easily follow up his
movements without doing much holding, and as soon as he stops running
backward you are right with him, and all ready to go ahead; and if he
gets stubborn and does not want to go, you can remove all his
stubbornness by riding your horse against his neck, thus compelling him
to turn to the right; and as soon as you have turned him about a few
times, he will be willing to go along. The next thing, after you have
got through leading him, will be to take him into a stable, and hitch
him in such a way as not to have him pull on the halter, and as they are
often troublesome to get into a stable the first few times, I will give
you some instructions about getting him in.
HOW TO LEAD A COLT INTO THE STABLE AND HITCH HIM WITHOUT HAVING HIM PULL
ON THE HALTER.
You should lead the broken horse into the stable first, and get the
colt, if you can, to follow in after him. If he refuses to go, step up
to him, taking a little stick or switch in your right hand; then take
hold of the halter close to his head with your left hand, at the same
time reaching over his back with your right arm, so that you can tap him
on the opposite side with your switch; bring him up facing the door, tap
him lightly with your switch, reaching as far back with it as you can.
This tapping, by being pretty well back, and on the opposite side, will
drive him ahead, and keep him close to you; then, by giving him the
right direction with your left hand you can walk into the stable with
him. I have walked colts into the stable in this way in less than a
minute, after men had worked at them half an hour, trying to pull them
in. If you cannot walk him in at once in this way, turn him about and
walk him around in every direction, until you can get him up to the door
without pulling at him. Then let him stand a few minutes, keeping his
head in the right direction with the halter, and he will walk in in less
than ten minutes. Never attempt to pull the colt into the stable; that
would make him think at once that it was a dangerous place, and if he
was not afraid of it before he would be then. Besides, we do not want
him to know anything about pulling on the halter. Colts are often hurt,
and sometimes killed, by trying to force them into the stable; and those
who attempt to do it in that way go into an uphill business, when a
plain smooth road is before them.
If you want to hitch your colt, put him in a tolerably wide stall, which
should not be too long, and should be connected by a bar or something of
that kind to the partition behind it; so that, after the colt is in, he
cannot get far enough back to take a straight, backward pull on the
halter; then, by hitching him in the centre of the stall, it would be
impossible for him to pull on the halter, the partition behind
preventing him from going back, and the halter in the centre checking
him every time he turns to the right or left. In a stall of this kind
you can break any horse to stand hitched by a light strap, anywhere,
without his ever knowing anything about pulling. But if you have broken
your horse to lead, and have learned him the use of the halter (which
you should always do before you hitch him to anything), you can hitch
him in any kind of a stall, and give him something to eat to keep him up
to his place for a few minutes at first, and there is not one colt in
fifty that will pull on his halter.