STABLE VICES 123 



Nor is this teaching of undesirable tricks 

 confined to the large stables. I have known some 

 very mischievous horses in small stables and it is 

 difficult to say who is guilty of the greater folly, 

 the groom who teases, or the sentimentahst, man 

 or woman, who is always gushing over horses, 

 petting them and stroking their noses. '' Guns 

 and horses are not to be played with " was a 

 maxim that was sternly impressed upon me in 

 my youth and it is a thoroughly sound one. 



Perhaps the very wickedest horse I ever saw 

 in a stable was a grey mare we had when I w^as 

 a boy. Out of the stable she was thoroughly 

 dependable and a more ' confidential ' mount 

 man never had ; in the stable she was unpardon- 

 able. She was a Caesarean mare, i.e. her dam 

 was unable to foal her, so was shot and she 

 was cut awa}^ It is always a risky business 

 to bring a foal up by hand. Some fool that feeds 

 it is sure to teach it tricks. Even when, as in 

 this case, the regular feeding was done by a 

 thoroughly competent man, every woman and 

 some men, full of sloppy sentiment for the 

 " poor motherless thing," who passed the paddock 

 in which she ran, gave her sugar or an apple, 

 and played v/ith and teased her, ''just to make 

 her life a little less monotonous, poor thing ! " 

 till she was a past-mistress in the arts of kicking 

 and biting. It no doubt was very amusing to 

 see the little foal nipping and kicking in play ; 

 but those who encouraged these vices would 

 have looked at them from an entirely different 



