256 THE HEAVY BRIGADE. 



high condition ; yet these horses, from being accus- 

 tomed to the thing, will walk with a heavy stretcher 

 banging against their hocks, and chains hanging about 

 them in every direction. Nor does this proceed from 

 sluggishness; for the same horses will often jump, 

 squeak, and play in harness if a carriage passes them 

 on the road, and, unless stopped, would set off in a 

 gallop with the waggon behind them. Still, if the 

 backhand of the cart should come unhooked, a thing 

 that constantly occurs, the same horse will quietly 

 support the shafts by the name-chains, though the 

 fore part of the cart rests on his quarters. Why does 

 he bear this ? Simply because he is used to it, and is 

 not alarmed at it. A racing colt might be made just 

 as good tempered (though from his high breeding not 

 probably quite so steady) if taken early enough, and 

 before he had been brought into a state of unnatural 

 excitement by the high feeding, galloping, sweating, 

 consequent scraping, and we may call it teasing, that 

 a horse in training must undergo before we can bring 

 him to the proper state necessary to fit him for his 

 peculiar work. 



It seems the general idea among the majority of 

 persons, that all that it is necessary to guard against 

 in horses for harness is vice, when, in point of fact, 

 with nine horses out of ten it is the last thing we 

 need fear, inasmuch as any resistance they may show, 

 or any uneasiness they may evince, very rarely pro- 

 ceeds from any vicious propensity, not even when 

 they do kick or run away. The animal feels a 

 something behind him that alarms or incommodes 

 him: he as naturally sends out his heels to kick 

 it away, as we strike our own face if we feel any 

 insect alight on it. Most persons would do this even 



