338 THE HORSE. 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 



It would seal cely be believed to wjiat an extent this exists in some horses, 

 that are otherwise perfectly quiet. It is only at great hazard that they can 

 be cleaned at all. The origin of this is probably some maltjeatment. 

 There is a great difTerence in the sensibility of the skin in diilerent horses. 

 Some seem as if they could scarcely be made to feel the whip; others can- 

 not bear a fiy to alight on them without an expression of annoyance. In 

 young horses the skin is peculiarly delicate. If they have been curried 

 with a broken comb, or hardly rubbed with an uneven brush, the recollec- 

 tion of the torture they have felt makes them impatient, and even vicious, 

 during every succeeding operation of the kind. Many grooms, likewise, 

 seem to delight in producing these exhibitions of uneasiness and vice; 

 although, when they are carried a little too far, and to the hazard of the 

 limbs of the groo)ii, the animals that have been almost tutored into these 

 expressions of irritation, are brutally kicked and punished. 



This, however, is a vice which may be conquered. If the animal be 

 dressed with a lighter hand, and wisped rather than brushed, and the places 

 where the skin is most sensitive be avoided as much as thorough cleanliness 

 will allow, the horse will gradually lose the recollection of former ill-treat- 

 ment, and become tractable and quiet. 



VICIOUS TO SHOE. 



The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of the smith; yet 

 the master should diligently concern himself with it, for it is oftener the 

 consequence of injudicious or bad usage than of natural vice. It may be 

 expected that there will be some difficulty in shoeing a young horse for the 

 first few times. It is an operation which gives him a little uneasiness. 

 The man to whom he is most accustomed should go with him to the forge ; 

 and if another and steady horse were shod before him, he might be induced 

 more readily to submit. We cannot deny, that after the habit of resisting 

 this necessary operation is formed, force may sometimes be necessary to 

 reduce our rebellious servant to obedience; but we affirm that the majority 

 of horses vicious to shoe are rendered so by harsh usage, and by the pain of 

 correction being added to the uneasiness of shoeing. It should be a rule 

 in every forge that no smith should be permitted to strike a horse, much 

 less to twitch or to gag him, without the master- farrier's order; and that a 

 young horse should never be twitched or struck. There are few horses 

 that may not be gradually rendered manageable for this purpose by mild- 

 ness and firmness in the operator. Tliey will soon understand that no 

 harm is meant, and they will not depart from their usual habit of obe- 

 dience; but if the remembrance of corporal punishment is connected with 

 shoeing, they will always be fidgety, if not dangerous. 



This is a very serious vice, for it not only exposes the animal to occa- 

 sional severe injury from his own struggles, but also from the correction 

 of the irritated smith, whose limbs, and even whose life being in jeopardy, 

 may be forgiven if he is sometimes a little too hard-handed. Such a horse 

 is very liable, and without any fault of the smith, to be pricked and lamed 

 in shoeing; and if the habit should be confirmed, and should increase, and 

 it at length becomes necessary to cast him, or to put him in the trevis, the 

 owner may be assured that many years will not pass ere some formidable 

 and even fatal accident will take place. If, therefore, mild treatment will 

 not correct the vice, the horse cannot be too soon got rid of. 



