158 THE OKANGE COUNTY 



Prevention, however, is in the power of every proprietor of 

 horses. While he insists on gentle and humane treatment of 

 his cattle, he should systematically forbid this horse-play. 



GETTING THE CHEEK OP THE BIT INTO THE MOUTH 



Some horses are very expert at it. They soon find what 

 advantage it gives them over their driver, who by this man- 

 oeuvre loses almost all command. Harsh treatment is use- 

 less. All that can be done is, by fastening a round piece of 

 leather on the inside of the cheek of the bit. 



KICKING. 



This, as a vice, is another consequence of the culpable 

 habit of grooms and stable-boys of teasing the horse. There 

 is no cure for this vice; and he cannot be justified who keeps 

 a kicking horse in his stable. Some horses acquire, from 

 mere irritability and fidgetiness, a habit of kicking at the 

 the stall or the bail, and particularly at night. Mares 

 are far more subject to it than horses. Before the habit 

 is inveterately established, a thorn bush or a piece of furze 

 fastened against the partition or post will sometimes effect a 

 cure. When the horse finds that he is pretty severely pricked, 

 he will not long continue to punish himself. A much more 

 serious vice is kicking in harness. From the least annoyance 

 about the rump or quarters, some horses will kick at a most 

 violent rate, and destroy the bottom of the chaise, and endan- 

 ger the limbs of the driver. Those that are fidgety in the 

 stable are most apt to do this. If the reins should perchance 

 get under the tail, the violence of the kicker will often be 

 most outrageous; and while the animal presses down his tail 

 so tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate the reins, 

 he continues to plunge until he has demolished everything 

 behind him. This is a vice standing foremost in point of 

 danger, and which no treatment will always conquer. It will 

 be altogether in vain to try coercion. If the shafts are very 

 strong and without flaw, or if they are plated with iron 

 underneath, and a stout kicking-strap resorted to which will 

 barely allow the horse the proper use of his hind limbs in 

 progression, but not permit him to rise them sufficiently for 

 the purpose of kicking, he may be prevented from doing mis- 

 chief; or if he is harnessed to a heavy cart, and thus confined, 

 his efforts to lash out will be restrained: but it is frequently 

 t very unpleasant thing to witness tnese aitempis, 



