238 FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 



heavy whip, or goaded with sharp spurs, — conjures up an image calcu- 

 lated to awaken no special delight. But long imprisonment may induce 

 that eagerness to breathe the air of heaven, which may possibly render 

 the prospect of labor, beyond the confines of its jail, welcome to the 

 captive. 



Quadrupeds have been injured while passing through the widest of 

 modern entrances. The pleasure of escaping from the tedium and from 

 the faintness of actual stagnation generates a joy which banishes the 

 sense of prudence. All feeling and every caution appear to be engulfed 

 in the exultation of the moment. The horse dances as it walks ; the tail 

 is gayly whisked; the neck is arched; the mane is shaken and the body 

 is twisted, by those numberless undulations which have often excited 

 the admiration of enthusiastic spectators. If, during one of these ex- 

 pressive movements, the trunk should be inflected more than the seven 

 inches which the five feet allow, or the animal, influenced by the impetu- 

 osity of excitement, should come in contact with the door post, the con- 

 sequence may be fearful. The possibility of check, certainly, does not 

 enter the thought of the joyous creature. The blow is proportioned to 

 the heedlessness which induced it. A bone can be fractured on such an 

 occasion ; nor is it an unusual accident. Most horses which are beheld 

 with one "hip down," have had the deformity produced by striking 

 against the post of the stable door. 



"Down in the hip," is a groom's phrase, and merely signifies that 

 one of the prominences of the haunch-bone, or, employing anatomical 

 language, that one of the inferior spinous processes of the ileum, has 

 been broken off. This osseous projection is of great importance to the 

 value of the quadruped; it gives origin to numerous muscles, but more 

 particularly to the powerful extensors of the hind limb. That ease, 

 grace, and rapidity with which the member should be moved are by this 

 misfortune destroyed, and the animal is thereby unfitted for the more 

 highly esteemed half of its future services. By the accident it loses caste, 

 and moves downward in the scale of equine employments. 



This terrible affliction to the life principally concerned may also be 

 occasioned in another manner. Grooms, when leading a horse from the 

 stable, commonly walk by the side of the animal. Such persons are 

 usually fully dressed to attend their masters, when called upon to per- 

 form this duty. Thus arrayed, the vanity of these men is extreme. 

 Their importance almost exacts homage from the quadruped upon which 

 it is their office to attend. Should the creature in its joy, when passing 

 through the doorway, touch the coat of the domestic, such familiarity 

 elicits the utmost indignation. Pride frowns at the pollution of its vest- 

 ments. A loud word, a kick or a blow, instantly resents the insult. The 



