298 CONFESSIONS OF A HOESE DEALER. 



or girl in a pair of tight shoes ? if their parents persist 

 in making them continue to wear them, the result will 

 be corns, and deformed feet. It may be said that race- 

 horses are shod at two years old and before, but their 

 shoes are of a different construction from those used by 

 draught- horses ; and how very many racers have con- 

 tracted feet, fall lame, and break down, before they are 

 three years old. 



I have frequently seen, with regret, two and three- 

 year-old colts beaten with the butt end of a whip, and 

 brutally kicked on the shanks and belly because they 

 did not answer to the " hawve," "gee/* " wo," and 

 " come up" of the English carter, who has seldom any 

 idea of fast patiently instructing the colt to obey him 

 before he expects to be understood. I have seen carters 

 lead colts reeking with sweat to cold spring water and 

 allow them to drink their fill, and afterwards leave them 

 to stand in the stable, when, as a natural consequence, 

 they become afflicted with gripes. 



It is a very common practice in some parts of 

 England to work colts, as well as old horses, in the 

 plough seven or eight hours without food or water, 

 thus teaching them, as it were, when they are fed, to 

 bolt their food, in the extreme hurry to satisfy the crav- 

 ings of an empty stomach, which thereby becomes un- 

 naturally distended with unmasticated food ; and before 

 the first process of digestion is completed, or perhaps 

 began, they are again harnessed and set to their work, 

 which, if severe, will probably end in permanent injury 



