BLINDS, OR BLINKERS. 59 



out the blinkers than wdtli. I have proved by my 

 own experhnents that a horse broken without blink- 

 ers can be driven past any omnibus, cab or carriage, 

 on a parallel line as close as it is possible for him to 

 go, \^'ithout ever wavering or showing any disposi- 

 tion to dodge. I have not in the last eight or ten 

 years, constantly handling horses, both wild and 

 nervous, ever put blinkers on any of them, and in 

 no case have they ever shied at passing objects. 



The horse's eye is the life and beauty of the ani- 

 mal, as well as the index of all his emotions. It 

 tells the driver, in the most impressive characters, 

 what the horse's feelings are. By it he can tell the 

 first approach of fear in time to meet any difficulty ; 

 he can tell if he is happy or sad, hungry or weary. 

 The horse, too, when permitted to see, uses his eyes 

 with great judgment. He sees better than we do. 

 He can measure distances with his eyes better than 

 we can, and, if allowed free use of them, would 

 often save himself, by the quickness of his sight, 

 from collisions when the driver would fail to do so 

 by a timely pull of the reins. It would also save 

 many accidents to pedestrians in the streets, as no 

 horse will run on to any person that he can see. 

 Blinkers are rapidly going out of use in the United 

 States, and I have yet to find the man who, having 

 once left them off, could ever be persuaded to put 

 them on again. They are an unnecessary and inju- 

 rious incumbrance to the horse, and in years hence 

 will be a thing to be read of as one of the follies 

 happily reformed in the nineteenth century. 



