The young owner must be impressed with the importance of moving quietly and slowly around a young colt. The baby first must get used to the feel of hands.To hold the animal gently, slip the left arm under the colt’s neck while the right arm encircles the rump. At first the colt might try to free himself, but he will soon learn to stand quietly. The next step is to pat the colt over the whole body, scratch around the ears, and rub his back. The colt must tolerate this handling before taking the next step.

Handling the colt’s feet is in the next lesson. Keeping the right hand on the halter, the free hand should be run down the hind leg, grasping the lower part of the pastern. Lift the leg slowly, moving it forward and back. The colt may lose his balance and jerk his foot. Try again and again, until the colt learns to balance. Pick up each foot every day and move it about until the colt does not object and learns to balance. It is important to praise the colt after each successful move.

Start talking to the colt so he will begin to understand the tones of the voice. The colt will start to enjoy each lesson because of the petting and the praise, and eventually there will be no sign of fear. About this time the colt will try to play. Colt play consists of striking, biting, and kicking. These antics are cute in a tiny foal, but as the animal grows and becomes stronger they can be dangerous. Now the colt must be taught what no means.

The average horse learns about twelve words. These must be used as commands. The colt will learn quickly that a sharp “no” means something is wrong. Say the word sharply. If the colt tries to bite, strike him lightly on the nose and say “no.” For the first ten days of the foal’s life he has no teeth. He chews on anything and everything just as a puppy does. Baby teeth are sharp, so the foal must be taught he must not bite people.

The first thing you need to set straight is the amount of money you could win and how much you need to bet to win it. Well, 10 -1 means you could win $10 for each $1 wager you place and 5 – 5 would mean you could get a $5 profit for ever $5 bet. So do the math yourself! Remember though that the odds must be rounded off, so the minimum bet is $2 and the payoffs are rounded to the nearest five or ten cents.

If you want to determine a horse racing bet in terms of exact odds, the win pool and as well as the amount of bets placed on the particular horse are very important things to know. A win pool is the entire amount of money wagered on all the horses being raced. So, knowing this key factor, you can figure out the take and subtract that amount from the total pool. Then you should subtract the amount wagered on that particular horse. This will let you know the amount of money that will go to winners. In the end, you have to divide this amount by the amount of money wagered on your horse to get the best odds.

The following step is to actually place a bet on a horse and the easiest way of placing a horse bet is a straight bet. This means that you bet on whether or not the chosen horse will Win, Place, Show. When you place a horse bet of win, it means that you expect the horse to come in first place. The Place or Show bet means however that you think that the horse will come in second for Place and third for Show.