308 HORSE AND MAN. 



For my part, the longer I live the more fully 

 I am convinced that ' vice ' in a horse signifies 

 cruelty on the part of man. Vice forms no part of 

 a horse's normal constitution. No horse is born 

 with a desire (like Mr. Winkle's natural taste for 

 perjury) for kicking or biting human beings. An 

 ' irreclaimable ' savage is made, not born, and the 

 most painful feature in the case is, that the fiercest 

 savages are invariably high-spirited and sensitive 

 animals. 



All horses are not alike, as the ordinary groom 

 thinks, any more than all boys are alike, as the 

 ordinary schoolmaster thinks, or at least used to 

 think. There is as much variety in the characters of 

 horses as of boys, and the schoolmaster or the groom 

 who tries to convert his charges into machines will 

 always find himself in difficulties with the pick of 

 the school or stable. It is the sensitiveness and Irish 

 spirit of a horse that convert it into a savage, when 

 treated with persistent brutal cruelty. The dull- 

 witted horse submits and suffers, but the high-spirited 

 animal rebels against such treatment, and soon learns 

 that if it can do no more, it can at all events have 

 the gratification of making its groom afraid of it. 

 And, as the groom is the only human being with 

 whom it is brought into contact, we need not be 

 surprised if it is unable to distinguish his conduct 



