100 HORSES: 



some fellow — how he tries to ease an aching neck! 

 Hitch, hitch, hitch, first to one side, then the other ; 

 then up he tosses his head for a change, then sharp 

 down upon the bit. He is talking, and every 

 thoughtful observer knows that the noble creat- 

 ure is saying, " Will you please unhook the 

 check-rein?" There, now, watch him. How he 

 stretches out his neck to get the cramps out of it ! 

 How good it feels. He rubs his face against you. 

 It is his way of saying, " Thank you — no one knows, 

 unless he has himself been strung up that way, how 

 very painful it becomes ! " Try it, my friend, and 

 see how it is yourself, to use a current phrase. 

 *' Don't check your horses very high ? " But why at 

 all ? Keep them in fine condition, so that they will 

 feel good all the time and they will carry their heads 

 right — at least naturally. Some horses are naturally 

 high-headed. But you can't make one so by string- 

 ing him up. Every one can tell whether a horse is 

 strung up by the bit ; and every kind-hearted person 

 pities him, if he is. Oh, take it off — don't wait a day. 



A WORD ABOUT THE BLINDERS. 



Take off the blinders, too ; give a horse his eyes 

 and he gets accustomed to all manner of sights and 

 nothing troubles him. Withhold them and, half 

 blind, he is constantly nervous — fearful of something 

 that would not disturb him in the least if he could 

 see it. That is, if he is a nervous fellow ; if not, then 

 there is no excuse for the blinders.* 



* It should be remarked, however, that all who contemplate dispensing with the 

 use of blinders on their horses, will do well to operate very cautiously at first. Even 

 a very gentle, but high-spinted animal, utterly unused to the appearance of the 

 carriage looming up in the rear, might become terribly frightened (and even frenzied, 

 after " making a break"), and the experiment might result disastrously. A case 

 of this kind has just come to my attention. 



