THE HORSE. 99 



management, you induce the horse to shy, you must 

 not, on that account, attribute any blame to him ; and, 

 in order to enable you to succeed in effecting a return 

 of the animal, you must be in a position to prove that 

 he was, under proper management, addicted to shying 

 previous to your purchasing him. Facilis decensus 

 averni ! Bad habits are far easier to inculcate or to 

 acquire than good ones. 



It is easy to sell or to buy a horse, be he good or bad, 

 but impossible to furnish, or acquire suddenly, the art 

 of managing him properly. 



The above remarks as to the ease with which a horse 

 contracts a habit of shying apply with equal force to all 

 other habits which may be induced in him, either inside 

 or outside the stable ; such as biting, kicking, plunging, 

 jibbing, savaging, &c. 



Skittishness. 



Horses that are highly fed, and at the same time 

 underworked, frequently acquire a way of spasmodic 

 starting and playfulness, and are then called skittish ; 

 such horses being, by the uninitiated, not uncommonly 

 called shiers. As the skittishness goes off on the horse 

 being put to serious and hard work, it is not to be 

 deemed a VICE. 



The subjects of vice in horses, the acquirement of 

 vicious habits, and the absence of all vice in the 

 H 2 



