224 Our Noblest Friend, The Horse 



their education, and rendering it a part of their 

 very nature and religion. 



Our efforts in this direction have not always been 

 directed by experience, nor by ordinary common 

 sense, and more than once theories have been promul- 

 gated and edicts legalised which have been properly 

 ridiculed, and have proved not only improper but 

 dangerous. For instance, the agents of the S. P. C. 

 A. made, one year, a sudden descent upon a number 

 of carriages awaiting their owners outside Madison 

 Square Garden during the annual horse show, and 

 removed from the bits of the animals attached sun- 

 dry so-called " burrs," which had been placed upon 

 them, as alleged, in order to cause the animals to 

 " foam at the mouth, and to appear spirited." A 

 " burr," it may be explained, is a round piece of 

 leather carrying on its surface sundry clusters of 

 short bristles, and placed upon the mouthpiece 

 next the cheek. The effect is not to make the 

 animal either "foam or prance," but to drive straigJit, 

 to keep off the sidezmlks, and, if boring, hinging, 

 heavy-headed horses, to properly behave themselves. 



