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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



Even the most inexperienced in matters equine cannot fail 

 to become pretty well acquainted with the practical manage- 

 ment of the stable by perusing Mr. W. Cook's work, The Horse : 

 Its Keep and Management. The work, published by the author, 

 is written with the humane object of lessening the sufferings of 

 horses, caused as often by the ignorance of those who have 

 charge of them as by cruelty. Mr. Cook treats his subject in a 

 comprehensive manner, and writes in a clear and concise style. 

 Lloyd's, August 25th, 1891. 



The author, William Cook, of The Horse : Its Keep and 

 Management, which he publishes himself from Orpington House, 

 St. Mary Cray, Kent, is a horse-breeder, and, what is more, 

 evidently a lover of the noble animal. His object in writing this 

 little book is to make the lives of these useful animals happier by 

 making those who have the control of them understand them 

 better. He treats of their feeding, watering, manipulation in the 

 stable, their ailments, breeding, breaking-in, driving, &c. ; and 

 he does it in such a simple unaffected way that he who runs may 

 read. If the kind of information here given were disseminated 

 amongst drivers and stablemen and all those who have the 

 handling of horses, it would have a more meliorating effect 

 upon the lot of the equine race than any number of police- 

 court prosecutions. Take our 'bus horses alone. How often 

 when one of them has stumbled may the driver not be observed 

 to give it a lash and begin to jerk ferociously at the reins ? 

 The time to give it a touch with the whip and to stiffen the 

 reins not jerk them is when there is a likelihood of its stum- 

 bling. To cut it after it has stumbled is, as Mr. Cook remarks, 

 to make it more frightened next time it stumbles, as it expects 

 the lash, and " in its excitement and nervousness its knees are 

 on the road before it knows where it is. " Another point touched 

 on by the author, which we consider well worth emphasising, 

 is the treatment of a horse that has fallen. To get him up the 

 driver frequently proceeds to kick him on the ribs or to apply 

 the whip. "Now," says Mr. Cook, "this is most inhuman; 

 the horse would not fall down if he could help it. That is not 

 all, however ; when he is down he is very frightened and nervous, 

 but when it comes to lashing him with the whip, and kicking 

 him, in less than three minutes the poor thing is all of a 

 lather with fright. Any man who does this kind of thing ought 

 to have six months' hard labour ; yet it is done every day. " 

 No ; the way to act is to be calm, collected, and kind ; get 

 him quietly ' disentangled from the harness and vehicle, some 

 one holding his head down the while, and then he will rise. 

 No amount of teaching, however, will, we fear, make good 

 drivers out of badly-dispositioned men ; for it is to a certain 

 extent true of the handlers of horses as it is of poets "they 

 are born, not made." Daily Chronicle, August 26th, 1891. 



