58 THE nORSE. 



throwing the necessary weight upon the collar, disturbs 

 the circulation to the head, and causes apoplexy, me- 

 grims, and other evils. But in double harness the bear- 

 ing-rein should be sufficiently tight to prevent the horses 

 from catching their bits in the pole-piece, though this 

 prevention is sometimes attempted by removing the lower 

 bar from the bit. What is thereby avoided, however, at 

 the bottom of the bit, frequently occurs to an equal ex- 

 tent by the catching of the cheek of the bit in the other 

 horse's head-gear. 



I have dwelt thus far upon the injuries arising from a 

 misfitting saddle, as they cause great annoyance and pain 

 to the horse, as well as inconvenience to the owner, and 

 are easily rectified by any one who will take the trouble 

 to look in the right direction for the cause; especially as 

 the same remarks apply to all parts of misfitting trapping, 

 such as saddles, bridles, harness, rollers, head-stalls, etc. 

 For in this case, what is true of one part applies to all 

 the horse's furniture, when even the slightest injury is 

 caused to him. 



A misfitting bridle or winker may, and often does, pro- 

 duce blindness or severe shying; yet this, like many other 

 simple things, has been often overlooked or misappre- 

 hended, from a natural proneness to forget that "great 

 events from little causes spring." 



Thus, in '-'Brunette's" case, before named, I proved 

 that the fault lay in the saddle. Some persons attributed 

 her habit of stumbling to cunning; others, of a more 

 scientific turn of mind, stated it, variously, to be partial 

 paralysis; the remains of an old strain only felt by the 

 mare Avhen carrying a one-sided weight; or the result of 

 an old strain, which, owing to the almost imperceptible 

 changes in the atmosphere, affecting, as such changes do, 

 the constitutions of all animals, affected her more at one 

 time than at another. 



True it is that the weather and atmos])here exercise 



