KEPT FROM KK'KrNC. 3;) 



Jiim I'runi tlie mangcf, and strap up one of liis fore legs (;'..');>;. 

 Then ji-o carefully to work, he can't hurt you, and you must take 

 care not to make him hurt himself. Do not keep one leg strapped 

 up more than ten minutes, but put it down and strap the other 

 if necessary. Do notliing in a hurry or in a temper, and when 

 his leg is up remember that the object is not to show the horse 

 you can hurt him, but that you will not hurt him. If the horse 

 is young and so fresh and restive as to be likely to hurt himself 

 with his leg strapped up, which very few horses will do, he must 

 be taken into a deeply littered or tanned loose box or yard, or 

 into a ploughed field. There his leg may be strapped up with 

 safety to himself, and he will soon be tired of any plunging. 

 When thus subdued, give the ticklish part a great deal of gentle 

 handling so as to get him accustomed to it, and to give him 

 confidence in your treatment. Chauge the strapped leg again 

 and again if necessary. If you cannot thus entirely cure him of 

 the liability to kick, he will soon get so accustomed to have his 

 leg strapped up that there will be no danger of his hurting 

 himself about it. The horse which merely shows you the way he 

 could kickf by lifting up his leg and putting it slowly back, is 

 only a good tempered horse warning you off. The really vicious 

 dangerous horse kicks suddenly without warning, and his kicking 

 leg moves at a pace too rapid for the eye to follow. 



60. — Whenever you approach the hind quarters of a kicking 

 or suspected horse, make a point of observing which of his hind 

 legs is carrying the principal weight of the body, and approach 

 him on that side, as before he can kick you he must change th-e 

 weight unto the other leg, which will give you plenty of notice. 

 Such a horse will almost invariably take the weight off the leg 

 yo'.i are cleaning, it is therefore best to clean the leg farthest 

 from 3'ou, standing close to the front side of the other. The foot 

 is the long end of a lever, which gains velocity by distance, so 

 that a kick at the starting point is nothing very serious ; at four 

 or five feet distance the velocity is very great, and the l)low 

 very dangerous. 



61. — Either the kick or the bite of a vicious horse is very 

 severe, and we must not be understood as advising any one to 

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