BACKING
—is the term used for the first time of mounting a colt (or taking seat upon the saddle) after he has been previously handled, quieted, stabled, and accustomed to the mouthing-bit, the cavezon, martingal, lunging-rein, saddle, and the whole of the apparatus with which he has been led his different paces in the ring: all this he should be brought to submit to most quietly, as well as to the being saddled, and every part of liable discipline, before any attempt is made to back him; if not, it cannot be termed a systematic completion of the business. As backing a colt (after every precaution) requires a certain degree of cool and steady fortitude appertaining principally to the breaker, whose province it is, (and is but little attempted by others,) a minute description of the means and ceremony could prove but of little utility here, and is of course for that reason dispensed with.
Opinion and practice have very much varied in respect to the age most proper for backing a colt, or even taking him in hand. Not more than half a century past, colts were never touched (upon the score of handling) till rising four, backed and brought into very gentle use when rising five, and never seen in constant work till nearly or full six years old. But so wonderfully has fashionable refinement operated upon the human mind, and so constantly is it agitated by the fascinating effusions of novelty and innovation, that we now find colts handled at two, broke (and racing) at three, and in constant work at four, in every part of the kingdom; in consequence of which impatient and premature improvement upon the judgment and practice of our forefathers, we now daily observe horses at five, six, and seven years old, more impaired in their powers, than they formerly were at double that age, to the evident production of strained sinews, swelled legs, splents, sprains, wind-galls, and the long list of ills so admirably calculated for the support of the new generation of veterinarians, who are daily emerging from obscurity, and for whom employment must necessarily be obtained.