416 KINDNESS TO HORSES. 



course, he is demented. If the vast majority of 



so-called vicious horses could write the story of 



their lives, what terrible tales of suffering and injustice 



they would relate ! A horse, unlike a dog, bears 



punishment in silence, and any brutal creature may 



with impunity torture a horse, but if he tried to 



hurt a dog in like degree, the yelping of the animal 



would alarm the entire neighbourhood, and be almost 



certain to call forth a strong remonstrance from 



some lover of animals whose sympathy had been 



excited by hearing such piteous cries. People who 



are unacquainted with the inner life of stables, have 



no idea of the brutality which many grooms and 



strappers inflict on the animals in their charge. 



When we find a horse which is difficult to bridle, 



owing to the objection he has to allowing his muzzle 



or ears to be approached by the hand of man, we 



may be almost certain that this vice has been caused 



by the application of a twitch, either on his upper 



lip, or on one of his ears, a method of restraint which 



should never be employed. By laying down the law 



on this point of horse control, I in no way pose as 



an authority, but rely on what my husband, who 



is a veterinary surgeon, thinks on this matter. He 



tells me that during the two trips which he made 



in 1901 to South Africa in veterinary charge of 



remounts, he examined the mouths of over seven 



hundred horses and found that more than ten per 



cent, of them had been permanently injured, especially 



on the tongue, by the inhuman application of twitches. 



