MAKKS OF AGE, AND ABUSES. 4^ 



the bones will bear without breaking, or, perhaps, not less 

 than even that. In this condition of extreme suffering he 

 must remain for two or three weeks, without any change. 



Thanks to a better state of public sentiment, these out- 

 rages have greatly fallen into disuse. Not only have sensible 

 men and men of feeling been disgusted with these barbari- 

 ties, but they are now rarely demanded by even our city ex- 

 quisites. Neither nicking nor docking is now 

 practiced upon country horses, and we hope the 

 time is not far distant when both will be remem- 

 bered only as the dim recollection of a past bar- 

 barism. The ears, fq|jftpck, mane, tail, and hair are all 

 among the natural adornments of the horse, and none of 

 them can the capritee of man successfully attempt to improve 

 upon. 



RACING. 



Many of our readers will probably be surprised to see this 

 subject introduced under the head of abuses of the horse, when 

 not a few other authors have placed it almost at the head of 

 their list of essentials in a complete veterinary treatise. Our 

 classification, howeve^^is not the result of any straining after 

 originality, or of any mere freak of the fancy, but originates 

 in the deliberate conviction that racing is one of the greatest, 

 and most injurious of the abuses that falls to the lot of horse- 

 flesh in this our day and generation. 



The great plea for the sports of the turf is nothing less 

 than a specious fallacy. It is that they tend to improve the 

 breed of horses throughout the land by making known su- 

 perior merit, and stimulating breeders and horsemen to 

 greater efforts in their various departments. With this state- 

 ment, it is designed to couple the inference — rather implied 

 than expressed, however — that the same ends can not be 

 attained by any other means, or, at least, not to an equal 

 extent ; and by such sophistry is it sought to cover up and 

 palliate those enormous evils — at whose head stands the most 

 corrupting vice of gambling — which are the invariable con- 

 comitants of racing. 



^% 



r 



