160 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 



It would scarcely be credited to what an extent -this ex- 

 ists in some horses that are otherwise perfectly quiet. If 

 horses have been curried with a broken comb, or hardly 

 rubbed with an uneven brush, the recollection of the torture 

 they have felt makes them vicious, during every succeeding 

 operation of the kind. This, however, is a vice that may be 

 conquered. If the horse is dressed with a lighter hand, and 

 wisped rather than brushed, and the places where the skin is 

 most sensitive are avoided as much as thorough cleanliness 

 will allow, he will gradually lose the recollection of former 

 ill-treatment, and become tractable and quiet. 



VICIOUS TO SHOE. 



The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of 

 the smith. It may be expected that there will be some diffi- 

 culty in shoeing a horse for the first few times. It is an 

 operation that 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 is shod before him, he may 

 be induced more readily to submit. It cannot be denied that 

 the majority of horses vicious to shoe are rendered so by harsh 

 usage, and by the pain of correction being added to the un- 

 easines of shoeing. There are few horses that may not be 

 gradually rendered manageable for this purpose by mild- 

 ness and firmness in the operator. They wiU soon under- 

 stand that no harm is meant, and they will not forget their 

 usual habit of obedience. This is a very serious vice, for it 

 not only exposes the animal to occasional severe injury from 

 his own struggles, but also from the correction of the irritated 

 smith, whose limbs and 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. If, therefore, mild treatment 

 will not correct this vice, the horse cannot be too soon got 

 rid of. 



SWALLOWING WITHOUT GRINDING. 



Some greedy horses habitually swallow their corn without 

 properly grinding it, and the power of digestion not being 

 adequate to the dissolving of the husk, no nutriment is ex- 

 tracted, and the oats are voided whole. This is particularly 



