188 THE PRACTICAL HORSE KEEPER. 



possible, while the grooming should also be carried out as 

 carefully as circumstances will allow. 



One important point with regard to the management of the 

 tradesman's horse which should not be overlooked, is the treat- 

 ment the animal receives while it is at work. Perhaps no 

 horse is more exposed to the danger of cruel treatment than 

 this, from the fact that he seldom comes under the observation 

 of his owner during working hours, and is only too often 

 entrusted to the care of a man who may be indifferent to the 

 animal's requirements or feelings ; perhaps an ignorant, brutal 

 person governed by a bad temper^ liable to become fiendishly 

 cruel by imbibing alcohol. 



To protect horses from cruelty in every form is the duty 

 of all ; but in no form is it more repulsive, perhaps, than that 

 it exhibits in the harsh and cruel treatment the tradesman's 

 horse so often receives from the driver while at work. It is 

 no rare event to see a brute of a fellow torturing and abusing 

 a horse for no fault the animal has committed, but probably 

 because he himself has made a mistake, or the horse has mis- 

 understood him, or for some other trivial cause, or sometimes 

 from no cause whatever. 



Such cruelty is not only inhuman, it is a waste of property. 

 TJnkindness to animals is as damaging to them as overwork, 

 for it materially diminishes their energy, breaks their spirit, 

 makes them stupid, and shortens their existence ; while kind- 

 ness and encouragement are profitable, inasmuch as horses will 

 do more work, and with increased intelligence, for a greater 

 number of years. Cruelty, overwork, and insufficient or bad 

 food, are the things to be guarded against in dealing with the 

 tradesman's horse. Overloading and overdriving are no less to 

 be condemned, and particularly that kind of bad driving so 

 commonly indulged in by butchers' boys and men, which is as 

 damaging to the temper and legs and feet of their horses as it 

 is annoying and dangerous to those persons who have the 



