136 BREAKING AND TRAINING 



You can also with nothing but an ordinary rope 

 improvise an apphance of the sort I have described. 



Another method of checking kicking with the fore 

 legs, is to strap one of the offending legs, or, if you 

 prefer, to hold it up. Whatever method you choose, 

 in no case omit to put on knee caps, so that in the 

 event of the animal stumbling no damage will result. 



Malicious inveterate kicking in the stable — and 

 outside of the stable for that matter — is the worst 

 vice possible in a horse, and one difficult to 

 deal with as it is objectionable. Here, if anywhere, 

 prevention is certainly more satisfactory than cure. 

 Should an animal give signs of acquiring this malicious 

 habit, you should lose no time in putting him into a 

 loose box, or if this is not obtainable, in an " end " 

 stall, in this way the necessity for and the danger 

 involved in other horses, or attendants, passing behind 

 the kicker, are both got over. 



Yet another plan of dealing with a kicker of the 

 inveterate class consists in fixing up a cross bar at the 

 foot of stall, or in the use of swinging bales. 



Two or three things ought to be kept in mind with 

 reference to kicking animals. Swishing of the tail, 

 for example, is often a sign of the vice under discussion. 



