COLT-Taming, is the breaking of a colt so as to endure a rider. Colts are most easily broken at three or four years of age; but he who will have patience to see his horse at full five, will have him much more free of diseases and infirmities than if he was broken sooner.
Preparatory to their breaking for the saddle, they should be used to familiar actions, as rubbing, clawing, h ltering, leading to water, taking up their feet, knocking their hoofs, &c. In order to bridle and saddle a colt, when he is made a little gentle, take a sweet watering trench, washed and anointed with honey and salt, which put into his mouth, and so place it that it may hang about his tooth; then offer him the saddle, but take care not to frighten him with it. Suffer him to smell at it, to be rubbed with it, and then to feel it; after that fix it, and gird it fast, and make that motion the most familiar to him to which he seems most averse. Being thus saddled and bridled, lead him out to water, and bring him in again; when he has stood reined upon the trench an hour or more, take off the bridle and saddle, and let him go to his
meat till the evening, and then lead him out as before; and when you carry him in again to set him up, take off his saddle gently, clothing him for the night.