TO EDUCATE A COLT NOT TO BE AFRAID OF HIS HEELS.
Too much importance cannot be attached to the manner of educating a horse’s heels, as it is in that point his greatest means of defense and resistance lies, and most men make the mistake of breaking one end of the horse, while they allow his hind parts to go uneducated. The instructions I am about to give will, if properly followed, insure success.
After laying your colt down, commence to handle his hind parts and heels, being careful to hold the cord firmly in your left hand, so that, if he attempts to get up, you can control him; then strike him gently with a stick, and, if he should show fear, which he naturally will, punish him in the mouth; then place the stick between his legs and commence moving it around, and, if he makes no resistance, remember to caress him; almost as much is accomplished by caressing as by punishing.
The above instruction is equally applicable to a kicking horse, but in his education he will require more lessons before the habit will be entirely removed; still, kindness and a little patience will soon accomplish all you desire.
Men in general exercise too little patience in the training of their colts, and they frequently expect to accomplish more in a short space of time than can possibly be performed. Yet the time really required, when measured by days, is so short as to be really surprising. Let us suppose that in training a colt one were to spend two hours a day for ten days, which is the longest time that could possibly be needed; compute the time at ten hours to the day, and the whole amounts to but two days, at the end of which he would have a well-educated animal. I doubt if a farmer or horse-raiser could employ his time more profitably in any other way than in thoroughly educating his colts, as he thus enhances their value, for there is no sensible man who would not give ten dollars more for a properly educated animal than for one improperly trained.