All balked
horses can be started true and steady in a few minutes time; they are all
willing to pull as soon as they know how, and I never yet found a balked
horse that I could not teach him to start his load in fifteen, and often
less than three minutes time.
Almost any team, when first balked, will start kindly, if you let them
stand five or ten minutes, as though there was nothing wrong, and then
speak to them with a steady voice, and turn them a little to the right or
left, so as to get them both in motion before they feel the pinch of the
load. But if you want to start a team that you are not driving yourself,
that has been balked, fooled and whipped for some time, go to them and
hang the lines on their hames, or fasten them to the wagon, so that they
will be perfectly loose; make the driver and spectators (if there is any)
stand off some distance to one side, so as not to attract the attention of
the horses; unloose their checkreins, so that they can get their heads
down, if they choose; let them stand a few minutes in this condition,
until you can see that they are a little composed. While they are standing
you should be about their heads, gentling them; it will make them a little
more kind, and the spectators will think that you are doing something that
they do not understand, and will not learn the secret. When you have them
ready to start, stand before them, and as you seldom have but one balky
horse in a team, get as near in front of him as you can, and if he is too
fast for the other horse, let his nose come against your breast; this will
keep him steady, for he will go slow rather than run on you; turn them
gently to the right, without letting them pull on the traces, as far as
the tongue will let them go; stop them with a kind word, gentle them a
little, and then turn them back to the left, by the same process.
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