OF FARRIERY. 



493 



demand that some examination should take 

 place, before measures of severity be resorted 

 to. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and 

 the shoulders sadly galled ; and the pain, 

 which may be intense on level ground and 

 with a fair draught, becomes insupportable 

 when going up a steep acclivity. These 

 things should be seen into, and if possible, 

 rectified ; for, under such circumstances, se- 

 vere punishment might produce obstinacy and 

 vice, but not willing obedience. 



A Horse, whose shoulders are raw, or that 

 have frequently been so, will not start with a 

 cold collar. When the collar has acquired 

 the^warmth of the parts on which it presses, 

 the animal will go without reluctance. Some 

 determined gibbers have been reformed by 

 constantly wearing a false collar, or strip of 

 cloth round the shoulders, so that the coldness 

 of the collar should never be felt ; and others 

 have been cured by keeping on the collar 

 night and day, although the animal is not 

 able to lie down so completely at his ease, 

 as without it, and which a tired Horse 

 ought always to be able to do. When a 

 Horse gibs at his work, it has been sometimes 

 useful to line his collar with cloth instead of 

 leather ; the perspiration is more readily ab- 

 sorbed, the substance which presses on the 

 shoulder is softer, and it is more readily eased 

 off at a tender place. 



Biting may be often the consequence of 

 natural ferocity ; but it is a iiabit also ac- 

 quired from (he foolish and teasing play of 

 grooms and stable-boys. When a Horse is 

 tickled and pinched by thoughtless and mis- 

 chievous youths, he will first pretend to bite 

 his tormentors ; by degrees he will proceed 

 farther, and actually bite them, and very soon 

 after that, he will be the first to challenge to 



the combat, and without provocation seize 

 some opportunity to gripe the incautious 

 groom ; and then, as the love of mischief is a 

 propensity too easily acquired, this war which 

 commenced half playful and half in earnest, 

 will become habitual to him, and will de^ene- 

 rate into absolute viciousness. Nothing cao 

 here be done in the way of cure ; kindness 

 would aggravate the evil, and no degree of 

 severity will correct it. Prevention is in the 

 power of every proprietor of Horses. While 

 he insists on gentle and humane treatment of 

 his cattle, he should systematically forbid this 

 horse- play. It is that which can never be 

 considered as operating as a reward, and 

 thereby rendering the Horse tractable ; nor 

 does it increase the affection of the animal for 

 his groom, because he is annoyed and irri- 

 tated by being thus incessantly teased. 



Kicking, as a vice, is another consequence 

 of the culpable habit of grooms and stable- 

 boys of teasing the Horse. There is no cure 

 for this vice ; and the owner of kicking Horses 

 cannot be justified in keeping them. Some 

 Horses acquire a habit of kicking at the stall, 

 and particularly at night, from mere irrita- 

 bility and fidgetiness. This is productive of 

 considerable inconvenience, as disturbing: the 

 other Horses, and frequently the kicker does 

 himself some injury. Mares are more subject 

 to these freaks than Horses. This is a habit 

 very difficult to correct. It is attempted by 

 fastening a thorn-bush, or a piece of furze 

 against the partition or post. When the Horse 

 finds himself pricked by the bushes, it has a 

 tendency to prevent his kicking, and perhaps 

 in the end may cure him of this very dis 

 agreeable and dangerous habit. Should this 

 method, however, fail, recourse is had to the 

 log, though the legs are often not a little 

 6 I 



