OUT-DOOR VICES. 299 
which will keep down the rearer who is merely indulging in his playful 
fancies. When, however, the vice has become confirmed, nothing short 
of severe punishment will be of any service, and the horsebreaker generally 
resorts to the plan of knocking the horse down as he rises by a blow be- 
tween the ears with a loaded crop. This stuns the horse for a time, and 
alarms him so much that he is often cured by one act of the kind ; but it 
is attended with some danger of injuring the horse, and the rider does not 
always escape. Another plan adopted by active breakers is to wait till 
the horse is just on the balance, and then slipping off to the left, it is easy 
to pull him over backwards ; but this also is often followed by severe 
injury to the horse when the ground is hard. I have almost invariably 
found that bad rearers have very supple necks, which increases the diffi- 
culty of keeping them down by any kind of martingale, and probably this 
will account for the habit having become inveterate. A stiff-necked horse 
can scarcely rise high if his head is confined even by the running martin- 
gale; but when the side-straps are tightly buckled to the bit, he is 
effectually restrained, whereas with a loose neck the head can be so bent 
in to the brisket that no obstacle is offered. In such cases I have known 
a cavesson with the noseband lined with sharp prickers, and the martin- 
gale buckled to it; a most effectual prevention, as the slightest pull opens 
it, presses the prickers into the nose and gives acute pain. Whenever the 
rider finds a horse inclined to rise, he should at once lean forward, and 
after ineffectually trying the martingale to keep the horse down, he must 
loose his head, or he will be almost sure to bring him backwards and cause 
a severe fall. 
For KICKERS, except when the habit is merely a mode of letting off 
superfluous spirits, severity is the only remedy, and a strong application 
of the whip down the shoulder the best means of using it. At the same 
time the snaffle-reins ought to be firmly held, and by their means the head 
kept up, for there is always a tendency to lower this part in the act of 
kicking ; the gag snaffle is very effectual for this purpose. 
LyIn@ DOWN is rare in the present day, being chiefly confined to under- 
bred horses and Welsh ponies, which are gradually going out of use. 
The spur is the only means likely to keep a stubborn brute up; but in 
some cases its application is followed by the animal throwing himself 
down suddenly instead of gradually. 
Puuneine may be described as a series of bounds into the air, which 
when they are made up and down in the same place, or nearly so, are 
called “ bucking,” from their resemblance to the playful antics of the deer. 
A bucking horse is very difficult to sit, but by sawing the mouth with a 
twisted snaffle it may generally be stopped at once. 
By SHOULDERING is understood the attempt to crush the leg of the rider 
against a wall, which some ill-tempered horses are fond of doing, It is 
easily avoided by pulling the horse’s head round ¢o the wall instead of 
from it. 
RUNNING AWAY is too well known to need description. In some horses 
it is a species of temporary madness, and scarcely any bit, however severe, 
will stop them. When there is room and scope enough, the remedy is 
simple, but, unfortunately, runaway horses generally choose a crowded 
thoroughfare to indulge their fancies in. A gallop to a stand-still, with 
the free use of the spur or whip at the latter part of it, will sometimes 
prevent a recurrence of this vicious act; but where the tendency is very 
strong it will have little effect. Punishing bits only make some high- 
couraged horses worse, but the majority of runaways would be dangerous 
