BITING. 335 



occupation. The disposition lo annoy will very soon follow the power to 

 do it. Some instances of complete reformation have occurred, but they 

 have been rare. 



^Vhen a horse, not often accustomed to gib, betrays a reluctance to work, 

 or a determination not to work, common sense and humanity will demand 

 that some consideration should be taken, before measures of severity be 

 resorted to. The horse may be taxed beyond his power. He soon 

 discovers whether this is the case, and by refusing to proceed, tells his 

 driver that it is so; and the utmost cruelty will not induce many horses to 

 make the slightest effort, when they are conscious that their strength is 

 inadequate to the task. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and the 

 shoulders sadly galled; and the pain, which is intense on level ground and 

 with fair draught, becomes insupportable when he tugs up a steep acclivity. 

 These things should be examined into, and, if po3sil)le, rectified ; for, under 

 sucli circumstances, cruelty might produce obstinacy and vice, but noU 

 willing obedience. 



Those who are accustomed to horses know what seemingly trivial cir- 

 cumstances occasionally produce this vice. 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 usual collar should never be felt; and 

 others have been cured of gibbing by keeping the collar on night and day, 

 although the animal is not able to lie down so completely at full length, 

 which the tired horse is always glad to do. When a horse gibs, not 

 at starting, but while doing his work, it has sometimes been useful to line 

 the collars with cloth instead of leather; the perspiration is readily 

 absorbed, the substance which presses on the shoulders is softer, and it may 

 be far more accurately eased off at a tender placfe. 



Shoulder-straps and collars are frequently lined with sheep-skin, the 

 woolly side outward, and much ease has been afforded the animal by this 

 contrivance, especially where the harness has been indifferently fitted, or 

 become hardened for want of greasing. 



BITING. 



This is either the consequence of natural ferocity, or a habit acquired 

 from the foolish and teasing play of grooms and stable-boys. When a 

 horse is tickled and pinched by thoughtless and mischievous 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 lo chal- 

 lenge to the combat, and without provocation seize some opportunity to 

 gripe the incautious groom; and then, as the love of misciiief is a propen- 

 sity too easily acquired, this war, half playful and half in earnest, will 

 become habitual to him, and will degenerate into absolute viciousness. 

 Nothing can here be done in the way of cure; kindness would aggravate 

 the evil, and no degree of severity will correct it. Prevention, however, 

 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 

 hf>rse-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 irritated 

 by being thus incessantly teased. 



