524 



CONCLUSION. 



bit or a tight bearing-rein, will provoke the horse to toss the head into 

 the air. This motion is regarded by most persons as evidence of spirit. 



and as signifying a playful disposition ; but ii 

 is in reaUty an effort to relieve for an in- 

 stant the tension which drags against the lips. 

 Another action which gratifies the majority 

 of spectators is to behold a steed move the 

 lips which are whitened with foam. Foam, 

 however, only indicates the presence of thirst, 

 and the reader will, upon reference to " Scald 

 Mouth " in the previous volume, discover that 

 rapid labial motion is not, in the horse, char- 

 acteristic of amusement. 



Bits of all sorts are decided mistakes, and 

 the blunder is the greater as the restraint be- 

 comes the more severe. The occasional employment of such things is 

 highly dangerous; their perpetual use destroys the sensibility of the 

 mouth. That continued pain should deaden feeling is a wise institution, 

 kindly ordained to prevent the sensibilities of this world becoming the 

 playthings of barbarity. Nature protects her creatures from the inces- 

 sant use of the goad by causing it to provoke numbness in the region on 

 which torture would operate. The knowledge of this law should instruct 

 mankind in the inutility of habitual severity ; while the conviction that 

 the same Tender Parent has, in madness, ordained a refuge for sudden 

 agony, should teach all people not to lash the horse into that state which 

 can alone render it truly dangerous. 



THE SUDING MOUTH BIT. 



With the last sentence the main subject of the present volume hag 

 concluded. The reader, as he reviews the topics which have been sub- 

 mitted to his judgment, is probably surprised to perceive how little of 

 mystery legitimately appertains to the horse, but how much its require- 

 ments accord with the dictates of " common sense." In short, "common 

 sense " may be said to indicate all that the proper comprehension of the 

 stable or its inhabitants need at the hands of a proprietor. 



Yet, is it not surprising that society at large regards "horse knowl- 

 edge" as a mysterious attainment, to be gained only by a long course of 

 actual experience ? Such a prejudice is without the slightest foundation. 

 Antiquated customs and exploded notions are common enough in every 

 mews. Filth is, in such places, supposed to be endowed with strange 

 medicinal attributes, and cruelty is patronized as though the perfection 



