SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS 213 



popularity of the horse increased during the first 

 two decades of the seventeenth century, quite 

 apart from the popularity that betting upon 

 horse races continued to acquire. 



As a natural result, perhaps, greater attention 

 soon came to be paid to the management and 

 care of horses, to feeding and exercising them, 

 so that probably the owners of the thoroughbreds 

 of those days had begun to realise, as they do not 

 appear to have done before, that a horse's work- 

 ing years may be considerably prolonged if he be 

 fed carefully and exercised regularly. 



Indeed the crass ignorance that until about 

 this time had prevailed with regard to the treat- 

 ment of sick horses comes near to being ludicrous. 

 Superstition, as we know, was rampant in con- 

 nection with the curing of suffering humanity, 

 and various forms of superstition extended in a 

 great measure to the treatment of animals that 

 were out of health. 



Thus we read of horses supposed to be pos- 

 sessed by evil spirits, when what they probably 

 were suffering from was an attack of simple 

 staggers ; of witches being consulted when a 

 horse went lame, and paid liberally for their 

 grotesque advice, and so on to the end. 



That horses so often went lame at about this 

 period was due probably to the ignorance of 

 many of the farriers of the very rudiments of 

 practical farriery. 



