3t> HORSE DOCTOR. 



when be tugs up a steep acclivity. These things 

 should be examined into, and, if possible, rectified ; for, 

 under such circumstances, cruelty may produce obsti- 

 nacy and vice, but not willing obedience. 



They who are accustomed to horses know what seem* 

 inofly trivial circumstances occasionally produce this 

 vice. A horse, whose shoulders are raw, or have fre- 

 quently been so, vviil not start with a cold collar. When 

 the collar has acquired the warmth of the parts on which 

 it presses, the animal will go Avithout reluctance. Some 

 determined gibbers have been, reformed by constantly 

 wearing a false collar, or strip of cloth round the shoul- 

 ders, so that the coldness of the usual collar should never 

 be felt ; and others have been cured of gibbing by keep- 

 ing the collar on night and day, for the animal is not 

 able to lie down completely at full length, which the 

 tired horse is always glad to do. When a horse gibs, 

 not at starting, bifl while doing his work, it has some- 

 times been useful to line the collar with cloth instead of 

 leather : the perspiration is readily absorbed, the sub- 

 stance which presses on the shoulders is softer, and it 

 may be far more accurately eased off at a tender place, 



BITING. 



This is either the consequence of natural ferocity, oi' 

 a habit acquired from the foolish and teasing play of 

 grooms and stable-boys. When a horse is tickled and 

 pinched by thoughtless and mischievous youths, he vyill 

 first pretend to bite his tormentors ; by degrees he will 

 proceed farther, and actually bite them, and very soon 

 after that, he will be the first to challenge to the eom- 

 bat, and without provocation, seize some opportunity to 

 gripe the incautious tormentor. At length, as the love 

 of mischief is a propensity too easily acquired, this war, 

 half playful and half in earnest, becomes habitual to 

 him, and degenerates into absolute viciousness. 



It is not possible to enter the stall of some horses with- 

 out danger. The animal gives no warning of his iuten- 



