316 CAPPETD HOCK. 



or hay-bands — which will save the limb from injury should the 

 horse kick against it again, or else let his leg be so fettered that 

 he is deprived of the power of kicking ; or, should he manifest a 

 propensity to kick on one side only, let him either be removed 

 into a corner stall where his kicking member will be opposed to 

 the wall, or let some furze be nailed against the obnoxious side of 

 the stall or stall-post, which will disincline him to renew the con- 

 test in that direction. Should the kicking appear to have excite- 

 ment given to it through some play or disagreement with his 

 neighbour in the adjoining stall, let one or the other horse be re- 

 moved into a distant stall or another stable. In a bailed stable, a 

 very simple contrivance has answered all the purpose of a furze 

 or prickly thorn branch without having the objections to which the 

 prickles in such stables are subject. This consists in procuring a 

 piece of coarse linen cloth, of an oblong shape, . and dimensions 

 regulated by the height of the bail from the ground — say four feet by 

 three — and stitching it to the bail in such manner that it hangs down, 

 as a swing partition-board would do, between the horses' standings. 

 There is nothing, it is true, anywise resisting in this linen parti- 

 tion, and yet it is found to answer the purpose of an opposing body, 

 insomuch as it has the effect of intimidating the animal from strik- 

 ing at it, for a time indeed of approaching it. This scare-crow sort 

 of influence it might be thought would wear out ; and to a certain 

 degree no doubt it does so, and sooner, of course, in some instances 

 than in others ; still, the impression, from the probability of the 

 kicking being renewed, will be likely to be revived from time to 

 time, since the balk the act of kicking produces operates in refresh- 

 ing the apprehension. 



Should nothing b}^ way of prevention we can devise for the stall 

 have the desired effect, we must have recourse to means of shack- 

 ling or fettering the limbs. In the choice of these — for several me- 

 thods are in practice — we must be guided by the disposition and 

 irritability of the kicker, lest the remedy turn out worse than the 

 disease. A well-lined hobble-strap with six or eight inches of 

 chain attached to it, buckled on immediately above the hock, so 

 that the chain dangles down the leg, and strikes it every time the 

 animal kicks, giving him '' a Rojand for his Oliver," is a common 



