HORSE-TRAINING MA^E EAST. 89 



plainly perceptible upon the incisor (nippers) 

 teeth. The cribbing muzzle is tho best means 

 of breaking up the habit. See Jennings on 

 •'The Horse and his Diseases." 



BITING HORSES. 



This is a hateful habit, or, more properly, a 

 vice of the worst kind. It is sometimes acquired 

 from foolishly teasing the animal in the stable by 

 mischievous boys. Love of mischief is a pro« 

 pensity too easily acquired, and often becomes a 

 confirmed vice; particularly is this the case with 

 biting horses. Last spring (1865) my advice 

 was asked regarding a horse which had alwayy 

 been known as a remarkably good dispositioned 

 animal, but, some four or five months previous, 

 some boys amused themselves by teasing him. 

 He soon acquired the habit of biting, and, almost 

 simultaneously, that of striking. Kegarding the 

 former vice — one of the most dangerous and the 

 most difficult of all vices to break up — I advised 

 castration ; the owner approving, I operated upon 

 him on the spot. Instead of curing the habit, 

 he from this time becaii-»e notoriously vicious, two 

 men narrowly escaping with their lives from the 

 infuriated animal. He finally became so con- 

 firmed in his vicious propensities, it was worth a 

 man's life to approach him. The owner, whose 

 name I omit by request, called upon me to handle 

 this animal, which I did on the sixth day of Oc- 

 tober, 1865, at his residence, near Princeton^ 

 New Jersey. My efforts were attended with 



