CAPPED HOCK. 



317 



and frequently an effectual contrivance to break the vicious habit. 

 Should the chastisement it inflicts, whenever a kick is made, prove 

 insufficient, a wooden log or iron weight may be appended to the 

 chain. This failing having the desired effect, fettering both legs 

 together may be tried ; it being borne in mind, however — what I 

 have just now begged attention to — that whatever the nature of 

 the stop or impediment to kicking had recourse to, it must on no 

 account be persisted in to the animal's detriment ; though it but 

 very rarely occurs, under proper management, through gentle 

 and gradual application — applying the shackles or fetters for some 

 few days, at first, only during the day and at such hours as the 

 groom is in the stable — that a horse cannot be brought to wear 

 either continually, by night as well as by day ; the latter, if not 

 the former, being a complete let to the exercise of his kicking 

 propensities. 



The Pattern of Fetters I have found to answer best is 

 shewn in the subjoined woodcut : — 



18 m. 



Length of chain, including swivels, 15 inches. 

 A, hobble lined with soft material. 



c, c, Swivels, to turn freely, to prevent kinking or entanglement of the connecting chain. 

 D, Length of hobble when extended, IS inches. 



The fetters may be buckled on, either above the hocks — in which 

 case the connecting chain should be but 13 instead of 15 inches in 

 length — or, what my experience has pointed out to me as the pre- 

 ferable place, around the pasterns (below the fetlocks), which is more 

 coercive than the confining of the hocks ; added to which, an objec- 

 tion to the latter situation is that the hobbles in the course of time 

 are apt to chafe the small of the thighs, and leave white marks 



