tap him lightly with your switch, reaching as far back with it as you can.  This tapping, by being pretty well back, and on the opposite side, will drive him ahead, and keep him close to you, then by giving him the right direction with your left hand you can walk into the stable with him.  I have walked colts into the stable this way, in less than a minute, after men had worked at them half an hour, trying to pull them in.  If you cannot walk him it at once this way, turn him about and walk him round in every direction, until you can get him up to the door without pulling at him.  Then let him stand a few minutes, keeping his head in the right direction with the halter, and he will walk in, in less than ten minutes.  Never attempt to pull the colt into the stable; that would make him think at once that it was a dangerous place, and if he was not afraid of it before, he would be then.  Besides we don’t want him to know anything about pulling on the halter.  Colts are often hurt, and sometimes killed, by trying to force them into the stable; and those who attempt to do it in that way, go into an up-hill business, when a plain smooth road is before them.

If you want to hitch your colt, put him in a tolerably wide stall which should not be too long, and should be connected by a bar or something of that kind to the partition behind it; so that, after the colt is in he cannot get far enough back to take a straight, backward pull on the halter; then by hitching him in the center of the stall, it would be impossible for him to pull on the halter, the partition behind preventing him from going back, and the halter in the center checking him every time he turns to the left or right.  In a state of this kind you can break every horse to stand hitched by a light strap, any where, without his ever knowing any thing about pulling.  But if you have broke your horse to lead, and have learned him the use of the halter (which you should always do before you hitch him to any thing), you can hitch him in any kind of a stall, and give him something to eat to keep him up to his place for a few minutes at first and there is not one colt in fifty that will pull on his halter.

THE KIND OF BIT AND HOW TO ACCUSTOM A HORSE TO IT.

You should use a large, smooth, snaffle bit, so as not to hurt his mouth, with a bar to each side, to prevent the bit from pulling through either way.  This you should attach to the head-stall of your bridle and put it on your colt without any reins to it, and let him run loose in a large stable or shed, some time, until he becomes a little used to the bit, and will bear it without trying to get it out of his mouth.  It would be well, if convenient, to repeat this several times before you do anything more with the colt; as soon as he will bear the bit, attach a single rein to it, without any martingale.  You should also have a halter on your colt, or a bridle made after the fashion of a halter, with a strap to it, so that you can hold or lead him about without pulling on the bit much.  He is now ready for the saddle.