230 CONFESSIONS OF A HORSE DEALER. 



mankind. His education commences with the loss of 

 his liberty, and is completed by restraint ; and when 

 employed in labour he is confined under the weight of 

 his rider, and restrained by a torturing bit, or strapped 

 between the shafts of a carriage, and if he be a cart- 

 horse his whole life is passed in chains, and even during 

 the time destined for repose he is not always delivered 

 from his bonds. And if permitted to roam in the pas- 

 ture sometimes, he still bears the mark, in a more or 

 less degree, of servitude, and often the external im- 

 pressions of labour and pain ; his mouth is deformed by 

 the constant friction of the bit, his sides are galled with 

 wounds, or furrowed with scars from trace, spur, or 

 the degrading chains, and his hoofs are broken and de- 

 formed by nails and bad-fitting shoes, and the natural 

 shape of his body and movement of his legs are de- 

 formed by the habitual pressure of the fetters which he 

 wears, and from which man cannot afford to deliver 

 him more's the pity but man can do much to alle 

 viate his sufferings. 



There are very many books written by veterinary 

 surgeons and others regarding the numerous diseases to 

 which horses are liable, some of which are directly op- 

 posed to others, as to the treatment prescribed for cure v 

 But not being a veterinary surgeon myself, I do not in- 

 tend to condemn or applaud any of these writers, some 

 of whose productions, no doubt, are good, while others 

 I know from experience to be the reverse. My object 

 is to warn the tyro not to use any of the recipes given 



