330 THE HORSE. 



some time after the skin is perfect over the incisions ; and the tail would 

 thus sink belov/ the desired elevation. 



If the tail has not been unnecessarily extended by enormous weights, 

 no bad consequences will usually follow; but if considerable inflammation 

 should ensue, the tail must be taken from the pulley, and diligently fo- 

 mented with simple warm water, and a dose of physic given. Locked 

 jaw has in some rare instances followed, under which the horse generally 

 perishes. The best means of cure in the early state of locked jaw is to 

 amputate the tail at the joint above the highest incision. In order to pre- 

 vent the hair from coming off, it should be unplatted and combed out every 

 fourth or fifth day. 



Chapter XIX. 



THE VICES, AND DISAGREEABLE OR DANGEROUS HABITS OF THE 



HORSE. 



The horse has many excellent qualities, but he has likewise defects, 

 and these occasionally amounting to vices. Some of them may be attri- 

 buted to natural temper; for the human being scarcely discovers more 

 peculiarities of habit and disposition, than does the horse. The majority 

 of them, however, as perhaps in the human being, are consequences of a 

 faulty education. Their early instructor has been both ignorant and 

 brutal, and they have become obstinate and vicious. 



RESTIFNESS. 



At the head of the vices of the horse we place restifness, the most an- 

 noying, and the most dangerous of all. It is the produce of bad temper 

 and worse education ; and, like all other habits founded on nature and 

 stamped by education, it is inveterate. Whether it appears in the form of 

 kicking, or rearing, or plunging, or bolting, or in any way that threatens 

 danger to the rider or the horse, it rarely admits of cure. A determined 

 rider may, to a certain degree, subjugate the animal ; or the horse may 

 have his favourites, or form his attachments, and with some particular 

 person he may be comparatively or perfectly manageable ; but others can- 

 not long depend upon him, and even his master is not always sure of 

 him. We will speak of the most likely means of cure, or escaping from 

 danger, as it regards the principal forms under which restifness displays 

 itself; but we must premise as a rule that admits of very few exceptions 

 that he neither displays his wisdom, nor consults his safety, who attempts 

 to conquer a restifl" horse. 



An excellent veterinary surgeon, and a man of great experience in horses, 

 Mr. Castley, truly says, in * The Veterinarian,' ' From whatever cause the 

 vicious habits of horses may originate, whether from some mismanage- 

 ment, or from natural badness of temper, or from what is called in York- 

 shire a misidchy whenever these animals acquire one of them, and it 

 becomes in some degree confirmed, they very seldom, if ever, altogether 

 forget it. In reference to driving, it is so true, that it may be taken as a 

 kind of aphorism, that if a horse kicks once in harness, no matter from 

 what cause, he will be liable to kick ever afterwards. A good coachman 

 may drive him, it is true — and may make him go, but he cannot make 



