Blackleg

"The value and usefulness of horses depend to a great extent on how well they are trained. The horse is taught to do things by the association of ideas. A definite word should always be used for the same command. The word "whoa" means stop to him for the reason that he has been trained to stop when he hears that word. Begin the training early and later lessons will not be difficult. Handle the colt regularly, as frequent short lessons are of more value than occasional long ones. The horse does things largely because of habit, and therefore much care should be exercised in establishing good habits. Kindness is essential in training horses. Few horses are inherently vicious, but many are made vicious by carelessness or brutality. To train horses successfully a man needs to exercise patience, gentleness, and firmness. Overloading the young horse is apt to cause balkiness. Punishing him for something that he can not do may also have the same result. The well-trained horse that "walks up on the bit" is demanded by city trade. This bulletin describes methods of properly breaking and training colts raised on the average farm, and is not intended as a treatise on the training of horses for special purposes, such as trotters, saddle horses, hunters, polo ponies, etc. The training of such horses requires the services of men especially skilled in particular phases of horsemanship and should not be attempted by the novice." -- p. ii.