296 CONFESSIONS OF A HOESE DEALER. 



perienced by pulling before the shafter was ready; and 

 now the shafter is tugging at the load before he (tho 

 colt) is ready or, in fact, knows what to do ; he is, 

 however, sharply reminded by the sharp cut of tho 

 driver's whip, which, I am sorry to say, is too often 

 followed by the brutal curse and ill-humour of En- 

 glish carters, who generally follow up the ill-treatment 

 upon the colt for the sake of gratifying their passion, 

 because he did not start at the precise moment they 

 required him forgetting that they themselves knew 

 nothing until they were taught, and some of them very 

 little afterwards. Terrified by abuse, the poor colt 

 jumps wildly forward with his shoulders into the collar, 

 plants his fore and hind toes in the ground until every 

 muscle and tendon of his thighs, hocks, back, sinews, 

 and shanks, fairly quiver again by the undue strain 

 forced upon them; and if the shafter happens to be 

 pulling at the same moment, the heavy load is lifted out 

 of the mud, and the cart fairly started ; but if they do 

 not both happen to pull at the same moment, the same 

 scene as before described is enacted over again, until the 

 colt is spoiled in temper, and by thus overstraining na- 

 ture before it has had time to develop itself, it must 

 give way somewhere, similarly to the bursting of steam 

 boilers, when strained by too much pressure. Such is 

 the inevitable result with horses whose natural powers 

 are overtaxed by the avarice of masters and the ignorance 

 of servants. 

 Need fanners wonder, then, that such things as curbs, 



