258 DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



as we have often seen done by the nimble guard in 

 days long past. 



In like manner as the spontaneous movements and 

 changes of attitude of the healthy horse point out to 

 us what may be attained by a judicious use of the 

 bearing-rein, so also we may learn something from the 

 observation of the self-adjustments which an animal 

 with weak or diseased limbs puts in practice to ease 

 itself. A horse that suffers in the fore legs will, so far 

 as he can, throw his weight back towards the hinder 

 ones. If only one fore leg is affected the hinder one of 

 the opposite side will be made to help out its fellow 

 more than that on the same side, and this often helps 

 one to find out where the mischief really lies. On the 

 other hand, if the hind legs are the sufferers, or one of 

 them, the animal throws its weight on the fore legs, 

 hanging down its head and neck, more or less in the 

 proportion to the degree of suffering it endures. Here 

 then we have indications sufficient for our guidance in 

 the use of the bearing-rein. An animal may be weak in 

 the hind quarters, or perhaps merely in the legs ; this 

 will induce it habitually to throw its might forwards, 

 and it will bore in the hand of the driver, who in such a 

 case must be very careful not to bear up the head too 

 much or too persistently. Or a horse may be tender on 

 the fore legs, whether from work, bad shoeing, or some 

 other cause ; when a judicious use of the rein will second 

 its spontaneous efforts to assume and maintain such a 

 carriage as best suits its build or perhaps infirmities. 



Of course it is not meant that horses, really unfit for 

 work, should be compelled to do it, after the fashion of 

 Mr. Pickwick's cabman, who preferred to think that if 

 they were " well bore up and had a pair of good high 



