Having carefully attached a rope-noose to the off hind pastern, the breaker may pull that hind limb toward himself, and gentle it.
I need hardly say that it is quite immaterial to which side the horse’s head is drawn, provided that, in either case, the opposite leg be tied up.
Keeping a horse in a constrained position on the ground.—If the animal goes down without a struggle, and sulks on the ground, he should be forced to “shew fight” by keeping him in the constrained position depicted in Fig. 39, until he has got rid of the most of his “temper” by ineffectual struggling. When a horse begins to groan, and to considerably moderate the violence of his struggles, we may feel confident that “the sulk” has been taken out of him, more or less, and that he is fit to be allowed to get on to his feet again. If an error happens to be made with respect to the amount of the effect produced, it should be on the side of leniency, rather than on that of severity; for the operation can be always repeated, and more time given on the next occasion, without running any risk of unduly cowing the animal. Whatever punishment we employ, should never be pushed beyond the point necessary to gain our required object, which, in this case, is the attainment of authority over the horse.
My own practice is, with animals that are
Fig. 39.—Horse with his head pulled round when thrown.
simply impatient of control, to produce the desired effect by making them lie down several times; and, with stubborn ones, by keeping them down, with their heads pulled round. The latter method might alone be employed, if the ground be hard or slippery, or if the horse’s fore-legs be liable to become sprained. In such cases, both the strait-jacket and throwing gear might be put on the horse, who might be made to lie down with the former, and have his head pulled round by the latter; after doing which, the strait-jacket could be taken off, so as to give the animal entire liberty to kick as much as he pleased. We might use a body-piece on the horse to save the point of his hip that is on the ground, from getting rubbed.
I cannot impress my readers too much with the value, for overcoming stubbornness, of the foregoing method, which, I believe, I have been the first to use.