328 RESTIVENESS : ITS PREVENTION AND CUBE. 



This we have done ourselves more than once ; but the 

 trainer misses an opportunity by being driven to this 

 extremity. 



Kicking. — There is a difference between kicking and 

 kicking. One horse will kick in harness, and not un- 

 der a rider ; another will do just the reverse. The for- 

 mer is probably extremely ticklish and sensitive to any- 

 thing coming in contact with its hind quarters ; mares 

 are frequently so, especially in spring. The latter will 

 probably have some weakness in the loins or hind 

 quarters that is rendered painful when weight is put 

 on its back. When this vice proceeds from natural 

 causes of this description, there is no help for it but 

 to employ the horse in whichever way it is content 

 to do its work quietly. Again, one horse will kick at 

 the spurs, another at the whip ; of course the exciting 

 cause, whatever it be, must be avoided. 



But something can be done with young horses that 

 simply take to kicking during the handling ; very fre- 

 quently the trainer has made some mistake, or been in 

 too great a hurry, or put the saddle too far back, or 

 girthed the animal too suddenly or too tightly. All 

 this should be, in the first place, well inquired into 

 and ascertained, and the vice will disappear with its 

 exciting cause. There are, however, some young ones 

 that take to kicking simply because they don't choose 

 to go. These should be put on the lounge with the 

 dumb-jockey, which will prevent their getting their 

 heads clown, what a kicking horse always attempts to 

 do. If the horse stops on the circle and begins to kick, 

 the trainer should proceed precisely in the same man- 

 ner as with the rearer — that is, after shortening the 

 lounge, and placing himself in front of the animal, sim- 



