PllOPEB MAKKEE OF DRIVING. 25 



learned that he must pull against the bit still harder, to 

 stop the circulation of the blood in the sensitive bars, 

 numbing them till the torture is unheeded. After a while 

 the delicacy of feeling is gone, large calluses are formed, 

 and the horse becomes perfectly useless. The knife is re- 

 sorted to, the " bags" are cut out. A brief respite, while the 

 ugly wounds are healing ; then again to be tugged at and 

 spoiled. The reins should be handled as if they were a part 

 of the animal endowed with sensitiveness, which would be 

 destroyed by a continuous pull. A slight motion of them 

 shifting the bit has often a magical effect in rousing the 

 horse, when whip and spur would fail. This mare must 

 be driven as an accomplished reinswoman would drive 

 her. Light must be the touch, and no continual exertion 

 of strength should be permitted. Her running out, the past 

 winter, has probably restored her mouth to its normal 

 condition. I will contrive a way she can be exercised 

 without danger of her running away, till she will no 

 longer want to. 



I notice there is still an enlargement of the knee which 

 must be reduced, or there will be more likelihood of her 

 hitting it. Her formation is such that she ought to trot 

 without touching. Like grabbing the quarters, it may 

 have resulted from defective shoeing or bad driving. 

 When it arises from natural action, it is one of the worst 

 defects a trotter can have, and is generally caused by a 

 wrong set in the elbows. We cannot change structural 

 growth, but we can modify the effects of it by a little dif- 

 ference in shoeing, making the outside of the shoe a trifle 

 the heaviest, increasing or decreasing the whole weight 

 of the shoe, cutting away part of the iron, and rasping 

 the corresponding part of the hoof. I once cured an 

 inveterate " knee knocker" by making him wear an in- 

 strument similar to what hatters use to stretch their hats. 

 This machine was confined between his fore legs and 



