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STABLE VICES 



ORSES are easily taught stable vices, 

 and indeed unless they are carefully 

 watched they soon acquire a few bad 

 habits without the active intervention of those 

 who have to look after them. And stable vices, 

 when once acquired, are difficult to eradicate and 

 are frequently dangerous. 



It seems absurd to impress upon those who 

 have to do with horses that they are not machines 

 and that they are not playthings but experience 

 tells that it is necessary to do so. I have been 

 in as many large establishments as most people, 

 and in very few of them can I say that I have not 

 come across a horse that has been taught some 

 undesirable trick by a mischievous lad or a 

 mischievous groom. This is not done with any 

 evil intention, but that is really a minor considera- 

 tion. If you knock a man down through careless- 

 ness it does not heal his bruises to teU him you 

 did not intend to harm him. A young fellow, 

 smart perhaps and with an undue share of conceit, 

 can, and often does, teach a horse many undesir- 

 able tricks just to shov/ how clever he is. He 

 does not wish to injure his master's property but 

 he does it all the same. 



