&t6 IHE SO-CALLED "INCAPACITATING VICES." 



Horse owners, however, should be very careful, not knowingly to risk 

 chink or rick of the back; for such an "accident," according to its in- 

 tensity, may reduce the animal of fabulous price to an article which 

 shall literally be almost valueless. It brings down the steed which 

 excited universal envy, to the cripple which no honest man would sell, 

 and which no prudent man would keep. The mischief once established, 

 too often sets science at defiance, for the rick, when bad, is terribly apt 

 to terminate in fearful fracture of the spine. 



THE PATENT TRACE-BHAPT. 



The above illustration is copied from the heading to a bill which 

 announces a patented invention, which is manufactured by Messrs. Gib- 

 son & Co., of Coventry Street. The novelty consists in the shafts being 

 so made as to render the employment of traces unnecessary when the 

 animal is driven in single harness. The weight of the vehicle, or so 

 much of it as usually rests upon the back, is dependent entirely from 

 the collar. For horses troubled with any of those "vices" which indi- 

 cate the spine to be affected, this kind of harness affords, at all events, 

 the most rational hope of working such creatures without provoking the 

 annoying and the dangerous symptom. 



When it is remembered that all animals which have been worn out 

 under the saddle, old hacks and hunters, are doomed to end their lives 

 in the more ignoble duties of propulsion, it is not surprising to find 

 many of the quadrupeds, sold for double or single harness, are affected 

 with those complaints which indicate the back to be disordered. The 

 worst exhibitions are confined to gig horses. Few carriage or brougham 

 horses are thus disabled ; that fact almost proves the author's inference, 

 as well as demonstrates the utility of that novelty which was in the last 

 illustration introduced to the notice of the reader. 



