26 I'HE HORSE. 



bom and indifferent to the lash. To trot horses of 

 this description is almost as bad : fractious and 

 fidgetty, there is no trusting them, and they are often 

 dangerous. Vicious horses should also be particu- 

 larly avoided for the road ; a kicker may damage 

 your vehicle, and detain you some time to get it re- 

 paired ; to say nothing of your own personal risk. 

 As a precautionary measure, it is prudent always to 

 use a kicking strap, even with horses that have 

 hitherto shown no disposition to kick. Nor can per- 

 sons who are obliged to go occasionally into strange 

 stables, where there is a number of horses, be too 

 cautious in guarding themselves from the effect of 

 vice in some of these animals. It is necessary for 

 travellers, in particular, to go into the stable to look 

 to the condition of their own horses, and without due 

 care it is possible they may receive at one time or 

 other, an ugly kick or bite, from some horse with 

 •which they are unacquainted. Moreover, ostlers 

 virill not pay the same attention to these disagreeable 

 brutes as to others, thereby rendering your personal 

 attention the more requisite, and consequently your 

 chance of injury the greater. The dislike and neglect 

 of ostlers to these animals are also attended with 

 other ill effects, for without proper care their real 

 capacity for usefulness becomes crippled; and be- 

 sides, they often incur the hazard of being lamed in 

 the stall by blows from the pitchfork. iVfter these 

 observations, not many persons, it is presumed, who 

 may peruse them, will, for the sake of the difference 

 of a few pounds in making a purchase, choose to 

 encumber themselves knowingly with more vices 

 than their own. It remains, then, only to recom- 

 mend any unfortunate purchaser of a horse of this 

 kind to part with him at any sacrifice, as soon as he 

 has discovered his mistake ; for whatever may be 

 the loss, the saving would be no compensation for a 

 broken limb. It may be as well to observe here, that 



