With this introduction to the principles of my theory, I shall next attempt to teach you how to put it into practice, and whatever instructions may follow, you can rely on as having been proven practical by my own experiments.  And knowing from experience just what obstacles I have met with in handling bad horses, I shall try to anticipate them for you, and assist you in surmounting them, by commencing with the first steps taken with the colt, and accompanying you through the whole task of breaking.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN GETTING THE COLT FROM PASTURE.

Go to the pasture and walk around the whole herd quietly, and at such a distance as not to cause them to scare and run.  Then approach them very slowly, and if they stick up their heads and seem to be frightened, hold on until they become quiet, so as not to make them run before you are close enough to drive them in the direction you want to go.  And when you begin to drive, do not flourish your arms or hollow, but gently follow them off leaving the direction free for them that you wish them to take.  Thus taking advantage of their ignorance, you will be able to get them in the pound as easily as the hunter drives the quails into his net.  For, if they have always run into the pasture uncared for, (as many horses do in prairie countries and on large plantations,) there is no reason why they should not be as wild as the sportsman’s birds and require the same gentle treatment, if you want to get them without trouble; for the horse in his natural state is as wild as any of the undomesticated animals, though more easily tamed than most of them.

HOW TO STABLE A COLT WITHOUT TROUBLE.

The next step will be, to get the horse into a stable or shed.  This should be done as quietly as possible, so as not to excite any suspicion in the horse of any danger befalling him.  The best way to do this, is to lead a gentle horse into the stable first and hitch him, then quietly walk around the colt and let him go in of his own accord.  It is almost impossible to get men, who have never practiced on this principle, to go slow and considerate enough about it.  They do not know that in handling a wild horse, above all other things, is that good old adage true, that “haste makes waste;” that is, waste of time, for the gain of trouble and perplexity.

One wrong move may frighten your horse, and make him think it is necessary to escape at all hazards for the safety of his life, and thus make two hours work of a ten minutes job; and this would be all your own fault, and entirely unnecessary; for he will not run unless you run after him, and that would not be good policy, unless you knew that you could outrun him; or you will have to let him stop of his own accord after all.  But he will not try to break away, unless you attempt to force him into measures.  If he does not see the way at once, and is a little