Stable Vices. 81 



must be put on immediately after the hay is finished, and 

 kept on through the night. A piece of rock salt in the 

 manger will, however, often entice the horse from the litter, 

 and perhaps remove the morbid and craving appetite by 

 its restorative powers. 



An inveterate kicker is to be very carefully approached 

 by all parties, and sometimes requires even more than 

 ordinary caution, in which case a chain is run through a 

 pulley in the stall-post, and from that to his head-stall ; so 

 that by pulling it, his head may be pulled round towards 

 the post, and by the same action his heels drawn from it, 

 so as to allow the groom to go to his head when he is safe 

 from the heels. Most good grooms, however, are able to 

 take care of themselves, and, by constant practice, they 

 learn to keep the proper distance — either near enough to 

 make the kick a mere push, or far enough to be out of 

 reach. 



Biting is managed in the same way as kicking — using 

 the chain, however, to draw the head to the ring of the 

 rack-chain, instead of to the stall-post. In dressing biters 

 a muzzle should always be put on. 



Crib-biting is a bad habit. It can be remedied either by 

 a manger of such a form as to prevent the teeth seizing it 

 — that is, wide enough in the front edge— or by a neck- 

 strap buckled on tightly, or by an open iron muzzle, which 

 keeps the teeth off the edge of the manger, and is some- 

 times furnished with a concealed set of goads, so that, 

 when the horse presses down, he pricks himself severely. 

 There is no perfect cure for the vice or habit ; and when 

 a horse has contracted it, he generally loses his extra fat 

 and becomes lean and starved-looking. Even the muzzle 

 does not entirely remove these appearances — though, with 

 it, the crib-biter keeps his good looks to a greater extent 

 than without it. 



Wind-sucking is very similar to crib-biting, and is pre- 

 vented in the same way — the only difference being that 

 the same noise is not made, nor is the manger seized, but 

 there is a quiet swallowing of wind, with the muzzle pressed 

 against the manger, instead of the noisy one experienced 

 in crib-biting. The concealed prongs are here of muck 



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