BITING. 335 



occupation. The disposition to annoy will very soon follow the power 

 to do it. Some instances of complete reformation have occurred, but they 

 have been rare. 



When a horse, not often accustomed to gib, betrays a reluctance to 

 work, or a determination not to work, common sense and humanity will 

 demand that some consideration should be taken, before measures of 

 severity be resorted to. The horse may be taxed beyond his power. 

 He soon discovers whether this is the case, and by refusing- to proceed, 

 tells his driver that it is so ; and the utmost cruelty will not induce many 

 horses to make the slightest effort, when they are conscious that their 

 strength is inadequate to the task. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and 

 the shoulders sadly galled ; and the pain, which is intense on level ground 

 and with fair draught, becomes insupportable when he tugs up a steep 

 acclivity. These things should be examined into, and, if possible, rectified ; 

 for, under such circumstances, cruelty might produce obstinacy and vice, 

 but not willing obedience. 



Those who are accustomed to horses know what seemingly trivial cir- 

 cumstances occasionally produce this vice. A horse, whose shoulders are 

 raw, or that have frequently been so, v, ill not start with a cold collar. When 

 the collar has acquired the warmth of the pjirts on which it presses, the 

 animal will go without reluctance. Some determined gibbers have been 

 reformed by constantly wearing a false collar, or strip of cloth round the 

 shoulders, so that the coldness of the usual collar should never be felt ; 

 and others have been cured of gibbing by keeping the collar on night and 

 day, although the animal is not able to lie down so completely at full 

 length, which the tired horse is always glad to do. When a horse gibs, 

 not at starting, but while doing his work, it has sometimes been useful 

 to line the collars with cloth instead of leather ; the perspiration is readily 

 absorbed, the substance which presses on the shoulders is softer, and it! 

 may be far more accurately eased off at a tender place.* 



BITING. 



This is either the consequence of natural ferocity, or a habit acquired from 

 the foolish and teasing play of grooms and stable boys. When a horse is 

 tickled and pinched by thoughtless and mischievous youths, he will first 

 pretend to bite his tormentors ; by degrees he will proceed farther, and 

 actually bite them, and, very soon after that, he will be the first to challenge 

 to the combat, and without provocation seize some opportunity to gripe 

 the incautious groom ; and then, as the love of mischief is a propensity 

 too easily acquired, this war, half playful, and half in earnest, will become 

 habitual to him, and will degenerate into absolute viciousness. Nothing 

 can here be done in the way of cure ; kindness would aggravate the evil^ 

 and no degree of severity will correct it. Prevention, however, is in the 

 power of every proprietor of horses. While he insists on gentle and humane 

 treatment of his cattle, he should systematically forbid this horse-play. It 

 is that which can never be considered as operating as a reward, and thereby 

 rendering the horse tractable ; nor does it increase the affection of the 

 animal for his groom, because he is annoyed and irritated by being thus 

 incessantly teased. 



