b\0 VICES OF THE HORSE. 



sharp bit ; to liave him always firmly in hand ; and, if he will run away, 

 and the place will admit of it, to give him (sparing neither curb, whip, nor 

 spur) a great deal more running than he likes. 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 



It would scarcely be credited to Avhat an extent this exists in some 

 horses that are otherwise perfectly quiet. It is only at great hazard that 

 they can be cleaned at all. The origin of this is probably some maltreat- 

 ment. There is, however, a great difference in the sensibility of the skin 

 in different horses. Some seem as if they could scarcely be made to feel 

 the whip, while others cannot bear a fly to alight on them -without an 

 expression of annoj^ance. In young horses the skin is peculiarly delicate. 

 If they have been curried -with a broken comb, or hardly rubbed TN^th an 

 uneven brush, the recollection of the torture they have felt makes them 

 impatient, and even vicious, during every succeeding operation of the 

 kind. Many grooms, Hkewise, seem to take delight in producing 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 tutored mto these expressions of irritation are brutally kicked 

 and punished. 



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

 Avith a lighter hand, and wisped 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 

 become tractable and quiet. Horses that are troublesome to clean are 

 rendered quite manageable by the strapping up of the near fore-leg. 



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 oftener the 

 consequence of injudicious or bad usage than of natural vice. It may be 

 expected that there will be some difficulty in shoeing a horse for the first 

 few times. It is an operation that gives him a little uneasiness. — The man 

 to whom he is most accustomed should go with him to the forge ; and if 

 another and steady horse is shod before him, he may be induced raore 

 readily to submit. It cannot be denied that, after the habit of resisting 

 this necessary operation is formed, force may sometimes be necessary to 

 reduce our rebellious servant to obedience ; but we unhesitatingly affirm 

 that the majority of horses vicious to shoe are rendered so by harsh usage, 

 and by the pain of correction being added to the uneasiness of shoeing. It 

 should be a rule in every forge that no smith should be permitted to strike 

 a horse, much less to t-witch or to gag him, without the master-farrier's 

 order ; and that a young horse should never be twitched or struck. There 

 are few horses that may not be gradually rendered manageable for this 

 purpose by mildness and firmness in the operator. They wiU soon under- 

 stand that no harm is meant, and they "VN-ill not forget their usual habit of 

 obedience ; but if the remembrance of corporal punishment is connected 

 with shoeing, they will always be fidgety, and occasionally dangerous. 



This is a very serious vice, for it not only exposes the animal to occa- 

 sional severe injury from his own struggles, but also from the correction 

 of the irritated smith, whose limbs and. whose life being in jeopardy, may 

 be forgiven if he is sometimes a little too hard-handed. Such a horse is 

 very hable, and without any fault of the smith, to be pricked and lamed 

 in shoeing ; and if the habit should be confirmed, and should increase, and 

 it at length becomes necessary to cast him, or to put him in the trevis, the 

 owner may be assured that many years will not pass ere some formidable 



