Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1871 — Management of Balky Horses. [ARTICLE]

Management of Balky Horses.

The first and better way is never to have a balky horse. If horses are handled properly they will never balk. After a horse has been “fooled,” as horsemen very properly say when a good horse balks, it will require a vast amount of cautious management to correct the bad habit. Horses are taught to balk by stupid and cruel drivers, who have really less good sense than the animals they drive. Many strong and excellent horses are managed so improperly that they soon become almost incorrigible balkers; where, if a driver of ordinary intelligence had held the reins, the animals would have always been as true as steel. If a horse is properly managed he will draw with all his might, trot or run as his driver may indicate, until he drops in his harness from utter exhaustion. After a horse has really contracted the habit of balking, the vice can be corrected only by kindness and gentle treatment. The more he is whipped, kicked, clubbed, and handled roughly, the more obstinate he will be. Hence, throw away whips and clubs, and let gentle treatment bear rule. Then, beware of over-loading. A person can coax out of a horse a service that whips and kicks can never secure. Always provide some means to enable a team to start a heavy load easily. Avoid stopping—J£ possible—where it will be difficult to start. It is better to let a team stop for a moment, ten times, when hauling a load up a slope, than to aliow it to stop in a place where it will be difficult to start. The writer was once accustomed to carry pieces of plank to a field for the wheels of the wagon to rest upon, while it was being loaded with pototoes or corn, so that the team would move off rapidly with a heavy load, that they could never start, if the wheels had been allowed to sink into the ground while the load was increasing in weight. When a horse balks on account of exhaustion, allow the animal to rest until he has recovered strenght to draw his load. Above all beware of too heavy loads, of impatience, or roughness. and of over-driving.— Exchange.