"Oh, no. That wouldn't do much good."
"After he has actually done it, then?"
"No. He mightn't associate the beating with a tree at all." He rubbed his whip up Timber's dark crest, and Timber bowed. "You'd be surprised at the odd things they associate."
"Nothing would surprise me to any extent about horses. How are you going to do it then?"
"Let him go full bat near a nice tempting tree, and when he swerves under it give him a cut on the belly that he'll remember all his life."
"Oh, no, that's too bad. The poor brute."
"It will be just too bad if I don't time my slip sideways on the saddle properly," Brat said dryly.
"And will that cure him?"
"I hope so. Next time he sees a likely tree he'll remember that it hurt like the blazes last time he tried it."
"But he'll hate you."