382 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



danger of laming themselves. This often proceeds from a 

 very sensitive skin, and at other times from their grooms 

 having inflicted severe chastisement on some former occasion 

 when cleaning. Besides, ill-disposed grooms, bj teasing the 

 animals, or currying them with a broken-toothed comb or 

 uneven-surfaced brush, teach them this bad habit, and have 

 even a delight in seeing the animals show their teeth ; and 

 this is continued until it becomes a fixed vice. If a 

 change of groom takes place, what was done partly in 

 pli-y is then manifested in anger, and serious injuries have 

 been inflicted upon the unsuspecting stranger. It therefore 

 behoves grooms to be cautious how they handle a strange 

 horse. 



There is much variety in the sensibility of the skin of 

 horses, some being so tender that moderate rubbing gives 

 them uneasiness, while others are so much the reverse that 

 the whip hardly excites it. 



It will not be difiicult to overcome this vicious habit. 

 When the groom discovers it, the best plan is to use a 

 gentle hand while cleaning, and lean lightly on those parts 

 which seem most sensitive ; and avoid punishing the animal 

 for exhibiting restifi"ness, and he will soon lose all recol- 

 lection of the former ill-treatment which he had received 

 from his groom, and become quiet and steady. 



RESTIFFNESS WHILE SHOEING. ^ 



When a young horse is first shod, great caution should be 

 used, and gentle means adopted to induce the animal to sub- 

 rait to this novel operation ; and it would be much better to 

 pay the smith a small gratuity for his loss of time in coaxing 

 the horse to submit to it, than to use the gag hurriedly. It 

 must naturally be expected that a young animal will exhibit 

 uneasiness for the first few times he is taken to the smithy. 



