CHAPTER YIII. 



THE SO-OALLED "INCAPACITATING VICES," WHICH ARE THE RESULTS OP 

 INJURY OR or DISEASE. 



The word "vice," when applied to the horse, represents any quality 

 which may annoy the prejudices of the groom, or may prove displeasing 

 to the expectations of the master. It is purely ridiculous to suppose 

 the animal can possibly be "vicious." The simple nature of the quad- 

 ruped is gifted with no power to distinguish good from evil. It lacks 

 the imagination to conceive those acts which man esteems to be heroic 

 or to be grand. Were the creature able to embody ideas, the race would 

 possess the ability to combine; anything approaching to the present 

 patient docility would then be exchanged for open rebellion against the 

 earthly tyrant. 



Human intelligence, however, seems to derive a strange pleasure from 

 regarding the obedient and most forgiving horse as a "vicious," a savage, 

 and a most relentless "brute." There seems to exist some happiness in 

 the exhibition of those cruelties which such notions alone can justify. 

 It is true that such unseemly contests do not invariably terminate in 

 favor of him who always originates the strife. The master, who could 

 by mildness have retained his power, by resorting to blows occasionally 

 becomes worsted; but the horse, although it should prove victorious, 

 always has to grieve over its triumph. The prowess of the quadruped 

 draws down the heaviest punishment of other members of the race, an 

 individual of which the animal has defeated. 



A great many "accidents" would be avoided, and, probably, the 

 amount of happiness permitted to mortals would not be materially les- 

 sened, could the populace be instructed to think a horse was endowed 

 with senses, was gifted with feelings, and was able, in some degree, to 

 appreciate motives. Such powers are enjoyed by all the higher grades 

 of animal life. In asserting this, there is not the most distant desire to 

 confound the living creature with the intellectual being. Reason believes 

 in and can contemplate a futurity. The human eye takes easiest cogni- 

 zance of forward objects. The vision of the horse does not behold 



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