S08 VICIOUS TO SHOE. 



broken comb, or bardlj rubbed with an uneven brush, the 

 recollection of the tortupe they have felt makes them impa- 

 tient and even vicious during every succeeding operation of 

 the kind. Many grooms, likewise, seem to delight in pro- 

 ducing these exhibitions of uneasiness and vice, although, when 

 they are carried a little too far, and at the hazard of the limbs 

 of the groom, the animals that have been almost tortured into 

 these manifestations of irritation, are brutally kicked and 

 punished. 



This, however is a vice that may be conquered. If the 

 horse is dressed with a lighter hand, and wiped rather than 

 brushed, and the places where the skin is most sensitive are 

 avoided as much as thorough cleanliness will allow, he will 

 gradually lose the recollection of former ill-treatment, and be- 

 come tractable and quiet. 



In those instances where the skin is so irritable that the 

 horse really endures a great deal of misery every time he is 

 cleaned besides requiring needlessly the expenditure of a 

 great amount of muscular exertion, the remedy is very simple ; 

 instead of being curry-combed and wiped, the horse should be 

 merely washed over with warm water on his coming in warm 

 from a journey, then gently scraped and covered with a rug. 

 The warmth of the body will very soon dry the gkin. 



VICIOUS TO SHOE. 



The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of the 

 smith ; yet the master should diligently concern himself with 

 it, for it is more often the consequence of injudicious or bad 

 usage, than of natural vice. The vice is certainly a bad one, 

 and it very materially diminishes the v«alue of the horse ; for ii 



