148 



ANIMAL MANAGEMENT. 



Methods of 

 restraint. 



Other methods of securing. — A swinging picket is occasionally used by 

 officers for their chargers, and is made by running a head rope with log 

 attached through a swivel or movable ring on the top of a picket post 

 between three and four feet high. If this plan is adopted, the head rope 

 must be no longer than previously described, and the log quite heavy 

 enough to take back the slack when the horse changes his position. 



Another method is to employ a smooth pole six or seven feet high, with 

 a loose ring, of larger diameter than the pole, fixed by a short strap to the 

 cheek piece of the head collar. The ring is placed over the pole, up and 

 down which it slides as the animal's head is raised and lowered. It is a 

 useful way of securing a biter, as it limits the movement of the head, while 

 permitting all necessary freedom. 



A double head rope is often used with the object of gaining extra 

 security or limiting the side movements of the head. A peg is driven two 

 or three feet on each side of the horse's head, and a rope fixed to each 

 from the cheek pieces of the head collar. It is a favourite method in India, 

 and a suitable one where stallions have to be dealt with. 



A single foot shackle., fastened on the pastern of one fore foot, and 

 attached to a peg by a short length of rope or chain, is a convenient way 

 for single horsemen, on detached duty, to secure their mounts. The peg 

 must be driven flush with the ground, or it will prevent the horse lying 

 down without risk of injury ; the plan makes each man independent, 

 and the necessary equipment is portable and light. It has been said that 

 horses so tied are likely to strain their pasterns, but the assertion cannot 

 be sustained by fact, and once they are accustomed to it animals so 

 secured stand as quietly as with any other mode. 



The movements of horses may be restricted in several ways, all of 

 which are occasionally useful in camp, but in order to employ them with 

 safety and success it is necessary that the animals should be used to such 

 methods of restraint, or confusion, and possibly accident will result. 

 Where stallions are to be dealt with, they are not always applicable. 



(i) Coupling when saddled. — Place the horse's head to tail ; tie 

 the reins of each round the back stay of the rear arch of the other's 

 saddle. 



(2) Heads in a circle. — This can be carried out 

 (i) by tying the head rope of each to the head collar of the next until 



a complete circle is formed ; 

 (ii) by tying each head rope to a metal ring about 18 inches in dia- 

 meter carried for the purpose. Fodder can be placed in the 

 centre, and as no two horses pull in the same direction they 

 remain stationary. 



