506 VICES OF THE IIOliSE. 



collar, never yet accomplished the purpose. The horse may, perhaps bo 

 whipped mio motion ; but if he has once begun to gib, he will have re- 

 course to it again whenever any circumstance displeases or annoys him 

 and the habit mil be so rapidly and completely formed, that he will 

 become insensible to all severity. 



it is useless and dangerous to contend with a horse determined to back 

 unless there is plenty of room, and, by tight reining, the driver can make 

 hun back m the precise direction he wishes, and especially up-hill Such 

 a horse should be immediately sold, or turned over to some other work 

 in a stage-coach as a wheeler, and particularly as the near- wheeler • or 

 m the middle of a team at agTicultural work, he may be serviceable! 

 it will be useless for him to attempt to gib there, for he will be drao-o^ed 

 along by his companions whether he will or not ; and finding the inutifity 

 ot resistance, he will soon be induced to work as well as any horse in the 

 team. The reformation will last while he is thus employed, but Hke 

 restiveness generally, it will be delusive when the horse returns to his 

 former occupation. The disposition to annoy will very soon follow the 

 power to do it. Some instances of complete reformation may have 

 occurred, but they are rare. 



men a horse, not often accustomed to gib, betrays a reluctance to work, 

 or a determmation not to work, common sense and humanity will demand 

 that some consideration should be taken before measures of severity are 

 resorted to. The horse may be taxed beyond his power. He soon dis- 

 covers whether this is the case, and by refusing to proceed, tells his driver 

 that it IS so. The utmost cruelty will not induce many horses to make the 

 slightest effort, when they are conscious that their strength is inadequate 

 to the task. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and the shoulders sadly 

 galled, and the pam, which is intense on level ground and with fair 

 draught, becomes insupportable when he tugs up a steep acclivity. These 

 thmgs should be examined into, and, if possible, rectified ; for, under such 

 circumstances, cruelty may produce obstinacy and vice, but not willino 

 obedience. ^ 



They who are accustomed to horses know what seemingly trivial circum- 

 stances occasionally produce this vice. A horse, whose shoulders are raw 

 or have frequently been so, will not start with a cold collar. Wlien the 

 coUar has acquired the warmth of the parts on which it presses, the animal 

 will go without reluctance. Some determined gibbers have been reformed 

 by constantly wearing a false collar, or strip of cloth round the shoulders, 

 so that the coldness of the usual collar should never be felt ; and others 

 have been cured of gibbing by keeping the collar on night and day, for the 

 animal is not able to lie down completely at full length, which the tired 

 horse is_ always glad to do. When a horse gibs, not at starting, but while 

 doing his work, it has sometimes been useful to line the collar with cloth 

 instead of leather ; the perspii^ation is readily absorbed, the substance 

 which presses on the shoulder is softer, and it maybe far more accurately 

 eased off" at a tender place. 



Mr. Rarey's method of curing the gibbing horse is of the simplest na- 

 ture. At starting he pats the head and neck, talking to the horse in the 

 most soothing accents. He then stands immediately in front of him, takes 

 the bridle reins close up to the bit in both hands, and gently induces the 

 animal to move his fore legs alone two or three paces to the left. He then 

 l^auses, caresses the horse afresh, and moves him as many paces to the 

 right. Mr. R. continues this process until he has induced the horse to 

 move entirely round, or as much as possible in a circle in both directions. 

 By that time the horse will have borne well upon the collar, and will not 

 refuse to draw in any direction. Should the horse evmce determined vice, 



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