TO HANDLE A HORSE’S FEET THAT IS APT TO KICK.
Put him in a pen, and go on progressively, till you can handle all his feet as you would a dog’s. It must be recollected, that when I speak of putting a horse in a pen, I suppose them to be of the most refractory kind imaginable; otherwise, I can handle a bad horse’s feet, in a very few minutes, by beginning at his forehead, and so on.
TO TEACH A HORSE, SO THAT HE WILL NOT LET A PERSON DRESSED IN A CERTAIN MANNER COME NIGH HIM.
If you would not wish to have a person, for example, wearing a white hat, come nigh your horse, put on a white hat, go into the stable where your horse is, and take a whip in your hand: go up to him, and give him a few good lashes with it. Retire and change your hat for one of another color: leave your whip, come in again without it; stroke your horse, pat him, talk to him and feed him. Go out again, and put on your white hat: come in and whip him soundly. Then retire, put on another hat, and come in and handle him gently. Repeat the same for a few days, and your horse would as lief see the devil as a man with a white hat, and will not let such a one come near him; and thus it will happen with any other clothing.
I will relate a little anecdote, which took place in Mexico, a few years before I left there. One of my friends had a horse extremely gentle, and of such an easy, agreeable gait, that he took the greatest care of him, and held him at a great price. A well-fed, big and lusty friar was a friend to our neighbor: one who liked the good things of this world, as well as he liked to ride out to the small towns, bordering upon the city of Mexico, and take a dinner with the bonny lasses and countrymen, inhabiting those villages. He used to ask my friend to loan him his horse, to take these excursions just around the capital; and, as his requests were granted with so good a grace, he in a short time went so far as to ask the loan of this favorite animal, to go to Cuernavaca, a distance of eighteen leagues, or fifty miles. As this happened pretty often, our friend complained to me one day, at the indiscretion of the friar. I asked him if he could procure me a friar’s dress, for a few days, and leave his horse with me, for the same time. He did so. I dressed myself in the friar’s dress, and went in where the horse was. I took a good whip in my hand, and made him do penance for no other sin but that of too much gentleness. In going out I took off the friar’s dress, and went in again in my own dress, and handled him gently. I repeated the operation a few days, at the end of which, I took the horse back to his master, and told him he might lend him to the friar whenever he pleased. A day or two after, he came to my store. Your remedy, said he, has had a marvellous effect. Our monk has just left my house, perfectly persuaded that my horse is possessed with the devil. For, when the holy personage came up to take him by the bridle to get on him, he was so frightened, and wheeled round so quick, and flew away from him with so much terror, that one would have said he took him for the destroying angel. The friar crossed himself many times, hurried away with all haste to his convent, to sprinkle himself abundantly with holy water, and never asked my friend for his horse again.
TO TEACH YOUR HORSE, SO THAT HE WILL LET NO ONE BUT YOURSELF COME NEAR HIM.
Whilst your horse is eating, let another person come in to him with a stick sharpened at the end. Let him prick his nose with it, to irritate him; but slightly, drawing back at the same time. Let him repeat the same an instant afterwards, and every time the horse begins to eat again. Come to him yourself, and caress him and talk to him. Go out again, and cause another person to come in with the sharpened stick; but not the same one that came in at first. Let him fret him in the same manner as the other did. Call him out and go in yourself; handle the horse gently, and talk to him. Call in a third, and a fourth, and perform the same; always retiring suddenly from the horse, as if they were afraid of him, every time he leers at them, or endeavors to bite them. These lessons, repeated a few days, will inspire your horse with so much mistrust against every person but yourself, and a certain confidence in his own strength, that he will not suffer any one but yourself to come near him.