CHAPTER XVIT. 



VICES AND BAD HABITS. 



444. — These are for the most part easily prevented in the 

 horse by careful education and by the precautions we have 

 recommended. They are not so easily cured, nor is the reclaimed 

 horse any more than the reclaimed man so entirely trustworthy 

 as one that has never gone astray. Persons are always more 

 willing to pay for reclaiming than for preserving either health or 

 virtue, although they get a much worse article at a higher price. 

 We may carry the comparison between man and horse under thia 

 head a little farther, and say that the " perfect cures," paraded 

 with so much ostentation before the public, are generally perfect 

 failures, and often fraudulent deceptions. The man or woman 

 who wants a really good reliable horse to serve them well, under 

 good treatment, had always better get a horse that has been so 

 educated from the iirst that it has never had any serious vices to 

 eradicate, and leave either vicious or reclaimed horses to those 

 whose hard work, or poor fare, or steady company will put them 

 beyond the reach of temptation. 



KICKING 



445. — Is an accomplishment at which the horse has few if 

 any equals. The hard and often iron clad hoofs, the supple 

 joints, and the velocity given by the long levers, moved by the 

 powerful mass of muscles above them, give a force and velocity 

 to one of his blows that may well be dreaded by all who have to 

 deal with him. He is perfectly conscious that it is his best 

 means either of offence or defence, so that he naturally resorts to 

 it for either purpose. If his confidence in himself were equal to 

 his power, there are few if any animals that could face his well 



