14 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



comprehends, if it is made in a way consistent with the 

 laws of his nature. The horse, though possessed of 

 some faculties superior to man, being devoid of reason- 

 ing powers, has no knowledge of right or wrong, and 

 well it is so, for if he had sense equal to his strength, he 

 would be useless to man. He would then demand the 

 crreen fields for his inheritance, where he could roam at 

 his pleasure, denying the right of servitude at all. To 

 make him fit for the requirements of man, the colt lias 

 to be taught, and it is this teaching in its infancy that 

 makes it a willing and useful servant, or spoils it 

 altogether, by making it a vicious, worthless brute. No 

 horse was ever born vicious ; it is not in his nature, and 

 if he ultimately becomes so, it is the result of bad 

 management. The teaching of a colt should commence 

 at its mother's side, by the attendant constantly caress- 

 ing it, and passing his hands gently down its legs and 

 over its body, using kind words to it at the time. 



The colt should never be entrusted to boys or 

 thoughtless men, for they are sure to play with him, 

 and it is this that ultimately makes the colt become a 

 vicious horse. Hundreds of horses are spoiled in this 

 manner. The colt is teased until he either kicks or bites 

 his tormentor, then he is unmercifully beaten, and ever 

 after it looks upon man as its natural enemy. As a proof 

 that the horse is not naturally vicious, we find the most 

 docile of animals the progeny of vicious sires. As an 

 instance, Chanticleer was the most vicious horse of the 

 present century, and he was made so by the man who 

 looked after him tickling and pinching his flanks. So 

 vicious was he, that for the last 15 years of his life he 



