330 THE HORSE. 



some liino after the skin is perfect over the incisions; and the tail would 

 tlius sink below the desired elevation. 



[^ the tail has not been unnecessarily extended by enormous weights, no 

 bad consequences will usually follow; but if considerable inflammation 

 should ensue, the tail must be taken from the pulley, and diligently fomented 

 with simple warm water, and a dose of physic given. Locked-jaw has in 

 some rare instances followed, under which the horse generally perishes. 

 The best means of cure in the early state of locked-jaw, is to amputate the 

 tail at the joint above the highest incision. In order to prevent the hair from 

 coming off, it should be unplatted and combed out every fourth or fiftii day. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



DISAGREEABLE OR DANGEROUS HABITS OF THE HORSE. 



The' horse has many excellent qualities, but he has likewise defects, 

 and these occasionally amounting to vices. Some of them may be attributed 

 to natural temper; for the human being scarcely discovers more peculiari- 

 ties of habit and disposition, than does the horse. The majority of them, 

 however, as perhaps in the human being, are consequences of a faulty 

 education. Their early instructor has been both ignorant and brutal, and 

 Aey have become obstinate and vicious. 



RESTIFNESS. 



At the head of the vices of the horse we place kestifness, the most 

 tsinoying, and the most dangerous of all. It is the produce of bad temper 

 and worse education; and, like all other habits, founded on nature and 

 stamped by education, it is inveterate. Whether it appears in the form of 

 kicking, or rearing, or plunging, or bolting, or in any way that threatens 

 danger to the rider or the horse, it rarely admits of cure. A determined 

 rider imay, to a certain degree, subjugate the animal; or the horse may 

 have his favourites, or form his attachments, and with some particular 

 person he may be comparatively or perfectly manageable; but others can- 

 not long depend upon him, and even his master is not always sure of him. 

 We will speak of the most likely means of cure, or escaping from danger, 

 as it regards the principal forms under which restifness displays itself; but 

 we must premise, as a rule that admits of very few exceptions, that he 

 neither displays his wisdom, nor consults his safety, who attempts to conquer 

 a restiff horse. 



An excellent veterinary surgeon, and a man of great experience in 

 horses, Mr. Castley, truly says, in the ' Tlie Veterinarian :' " From wliatever 

 cause the vicious habits of horses may originate, whether from some misman- 

 agement, or from natural badness of temper, or, from what is called in 

 Yorkshire, a rnistetcli, whenever these animals acquire one of them, and it 

 becomes in some degree confirmed, they very seldom, if ever, altogether 

 forget it. in reference to driving, it is so true, that it may be taken as a 

 • kind of aphorism, that if a horse kicks once in harness, no matter from 

 what cauci^, he will be liable to kick ever afterwards. A good coachman 

 may drive him, it is true, and may make him go, but he cannot make 



