HOW TO DETECT IMPERFECT VISION Itf HOKSES. 197 



There are few respectable builders, now-a-days, who 

 do not understand the erection of well- ventilated stables ; 

 but where owners of horses cannot afford to have their 

 old stables rebuilt, they might, at least, break out win- 

 dows to admit light and air, and also, at a trifling ex- 

 pense, drain the floors; and thus, by keeping the air 

 cool and sweet, they would, to a certain extent, 

 neutralize the effects which a stifling and impure at- 

 mosphere will sooner or later entail upon their horses. 



The principal causes of horses shying are imperfect 

 vision, or near-sightedness, constitutional nervousness, 

 want of exercise especially when confined in a dark 

 stable and being unused to certain objects. For the 

 two first causes there is no positive cure, but much may 

 be done by way of amelioration. Many people have a 

 way of forcing a horse that shies immediately up to 

 everything he appears to dread, more for the purpose of 

 showing themselves off as riders than for any benefit 

 such a proceeding would be to the horse. 



A near-sighted horse should be allowed a reasonable 

 time to examine an object of which he may appear to 

 be afraid before he is urged with whip and spur to move 

 close up to it for if the rider insists on his overcoming 

 his fears in an instant, the consequence will be, that 

 when he sees the same or a similar object again, he will 

 remember the last unpleasantness between him and his 

 rider, and prepare himself for a renewal of opposition ; 

 and this will increase every time the same rider at- 

 tempts to force him up to the same or any other object 



