EDUCATING HORSES.

Patea Mail, 15 September 1882, Page 4

EDUCATING HORSES.

Horses can be educated to the extent of their understanding as children, and can be easily damaged or ruined by bad management. We believe that the difference found in horses as to vicious habits and reliability comes much more from the different management of men than from the variance of natural disposition in animals. Horses with high mettle are more easily educated than those of less or dull spirits, and arc more susceptible to ill training, and consequently may be made good or bad according to the education they receive. Horses with dull spirits are not by any means proof against bad. management, for in them may be found the most provoking obstinacy, vicious habits of different characters that render them almost entirely worthless Could the coming generations of horses in this country be kept from their days of colthood to the age of five years in hands of good, careful managers, there would be seen a vast difference in the general character of these noble animals. If a colt is never allowed to get an advantage it will never know that it possesses a power that man cannot control, and if made familiar with strange objects it will not be skittish and nervous. If a horse is made accustomed from his early days to have objects hit him on the heels, back or hip» he will pay no attention to the giving way of harness or a waggon running against him at an unexpected moment. We once saw an aged lady driving a high-spirited horse attached to a carriage down a steep hill with no hold back straps upon the harness, and she assured us that there was no danger, for her son accustomed his horse to all kinds of usages and sights that commonly drive the animal into a frenzy of fear and excitement. A gun can be fired from the back of a horse, an umbrella held over the head, a buffalo robe thrown upon his neck, a railroad engine pass close by, his heels bumped with sticks, and the animal take it all as a natural condition of things, if only taught by careful management that it will not be injured thereby. There is great need of improvement in this noble animal. Less beating wanted and more education.