HoRSE DOCTOR. 27 



drivpr. Those that are fidgety in the stable are most 

 apt lo do this. If the reirjs should perchance get under 

 the tail, the violence of the kicker will often be most 

 outrageous; and while the aniirial presses down his tail 

 so tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate the reins, 

 he continues to plunge until he has demolished every- 

 thing behind him. 



'^Jliis is a vice standing foremost in point of danger, 

 and which no treatment will always conquer. It will 

 be altogether in vain to try coercion. If the shafts are 

 very strong and without flaw, or if they are plated with 

 iron underneath, and a stout kicking-strap resorted to 

 which will barely allow the horse the proper use of his 

 hind limbs in progression, but not permit him to raise 

 them sufficiently for the purpose Of kicking, he may be 

 prevented from doing mischief; or if he is harnessed to a 

 heavy cart, and thus confined, his efforts to lash out will 

 be restrained : but it is frequently a very unpleasant 

 thing to Witness tliese attempts, though ineffectual, to 

 demolish the vehicle, for the shafts or the kicking-strap 

 may possibly break, and extreme danger may ensue. A 

 horse that has once begun to kick, whatever may have 

 been the original cause of it, can never be depended 

 upon again, and he will be very unwise who ventures 

 behind him. The man, however, who must come within 

 reach of a kicker, should come as close to him as pos- 

 sible. The blow^ may thus become a push, and seldom 

 is injurious. 



UNSTEADINESS WHILE BEING MOUNTED. 



When this merely amounts to eagerness to start — • 

 very unpleasant, indeed, at times, for many a rider has 

 been thrown from his seat, before he was fairly fixed in 

 it — it may be remedied by an active and good horse- 

 man. We have known many instances in which, while 

 the elderly, and inactive, and fearful man, has been 

 making more than one ineffectual attempt to vault into 

 the saddle, the horse has been dancing about to his an- 

 noyance and danger j but the animal had no sooner 



