RUNNING AWAY ^VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 375 



and occasionally successful effort to unhorse the rider, and con so. 

 queutly a vice. The horse that has twice decidedly and danger 

 ously reared, should never be trusted again, unless, indeed, it was 

 the fault of the rider, who had been using a deep curb and a 

 sharp bit. Some of the best horses will contend against these 

 and then rearing may be immediately and permanently cured by 

 using a snaffle-bridle alone. 



The horse-breaker's remedy, that of pulling the horse back- 

 ward on a soft piece of ground, should be practised by reckless 

 and brutal fellows alone. Many horses have been injured in the 

 spine, and others have broken their necks, by being thus suddenly 

 pulled over ; while even the fellow who fears no danger, is not 

 always able to extricate himself from the falling horse. If rear- 

 ing proceeds from vice, and is unjjrovoked by the bruising and 

 laceration of the mouth, it fully partakes of the inveteracy which 

 attends the other divisions of restiveness. 



RUISTNING AWAY. 



Some headstrong horses will occasionally endeavor to bolt with 

 the best rider. Others with their wonted sagacity endeavor thus 

 to dislodge the timid or unskilful one. Some are hard to hold. 

 or bolt only during the excitement of the chase ; others will run 

 away, prompted by a vicious propensity alone. There is no cer- 

 tain cure here. The method which affords any probabil- 

 ity of success is, to ride such a horse with a strong curb and 

 sharp bit ; to have him always firmly in hand ; and, if he will 

 run away, and the place will admit of it, to give him (sparing 

 neither curb, whip, nor spur) a great deal more rumiing than he 

 likes. 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 



It would scarcely be credited to what an extent this exists in 

 some horses that are otherwise perfectly quiet. It is only at great 

 hazard that they can be cleansed at all. The origin of this m 

 probably some maltreatment. There is, however, a great differ- 

 ence in the sensibility of the skin in different horses. Some seem 

 as if they could scarcely be made to feel the whip, while others 

 cannot bear a fly to light on them without an expression of an- 

 noyance. In young horses the skin is peculiarly delicate. If 

 they have been curried with a broken comb, or hardly rubbed 

 with an uneven brush, the recollection of the torture they have 

 felt makes them impatient, and even vicious, during every suc- 

 ceeding operation of the kind. Many grooms, likewise, seem to 

 delight in producmg these exhibitions of uneasiness and vice : 



