508 VICES OF THE IIOESE. 



driver, who hy tins mana3uvre loses almost all command. Harsh treatment 

 IS here completely out of the question. All that can be done is, by some 

 mechanical contrivance, to render the thing difficult or impossible, and this 

 may be managed by fastening a round piece of leather on the inside of the 

 cheek of the bit. 



KICKING. 



This, as a vice, is another consequence of the culpable habit of grooms 

 and stable-boys of teasing the horse. That which is at first an incUcatiou 

 of annoyance at the pinching and tickling of the groom, and without any 

 design to injure, gradually becomes the expression of anger, and the effort 

 to do mischief. The horse hkewise too soon recognises the least appearance 

 of timidity, and takes advantage of the discovery. There is no cure for 

 this vice ; and he cannot be justified who keeps a kicking horse in his 

 stable. 



_ Some horses acquire, from mere irritability and fidgetiness, a habit of 

 kicking at the stall or the bail, and particularly at night. The neighbour- 

 ing horses are disturbed and the kicker gets capped hocks, or some more 

 serious injury. This is also a habit very difficult to correct, if suffered to 

 become established. Mares are far more subject to it than horses. 



Before the habit is inveterately established, a thorn bush or a piece of 

 furze fastened against the partition or post vsdll sometimes effect a cure. 

 When the horse finds that he is pretty severely pricked he will not long 

 continue to punish himself. In confirmed cases it may be necessary to 

 have recourse to the log, but the legs are often not a little bruised by it. 

 A rather long and heavy piece of wood attached to a chain has been 

 buckled above the hock, so as to reach about half way down the leo-. 

 When the horse attempts to kick violently, his leg will receive a severe 

 blow ; this, and the repetition of it may, after a time, teach him to be 

 quiet. 



A much more serious vice is kicking in harness. From the least annoy- 

 ance about the rump or quarters, some horses will kick at a most violent 

 rate, and destroy the bottom of the chaise, and endanger the limbs of the 

 driver. Those that are fidgety in the stable are most apt to do this. If 

 the reins should perchance get under the tail, the violence of the kicker 

 will often be most outrageous ; and while the animal presses down his tail 

 so tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate the reins, he continues 

 to plunge until he has demohshed everything behind him. 



This is a vice standing foremost in point of danger, and which no treat- 

 ment will always conquer. It will be altogether in vain to try coercion. 

 If the shafts are very strong and without flaw, or if they are plated with 

 iron underneath, and a stout kicking-strap resorted to which will barelv 

 allow^ the horse the proper use of his hind limbs in progression, but no"t 

 permit him to raise them sufficiently for the purpose of kicking, he may 

 be prevented from doing mischief; or if he is harnessed to a heavy cart, 

 and thus confined, his efforts to lash out will be restrained : but it is 

 frequently a very unpleasant thing to wtness these attempts, though 

 ineffectual, to demohsh the vehicle, for the shafts or the kicking-strap 

 may possibly break, and extreme danger may ensue. A horse that has 

 once begun to kick, whatever may have been the original cause of it, can 

 never be depended upon again, and he will be very unwise who ventures 

 behind him. The man, however, who must come within reach of a kicker 

 should come as close to him as possible. The blow may thus become a 

 push, and seldom is injurious. Should the horse commence kicking when 

 in harness at a distance from home, and the leg-straps not at hand, then 

 a piece of rope or a pocket-handkerchief must be used to bind up the near 



