BITING. 125 



of the horse, who will not touch him. This 

 shows that when the horse does lay hold of an- 

 other person, he means it; it is no playful act, 

 but a determination to punish, and, in many in- 

 stances, to destroy, if he is not prevented carrying 

 his intention into effect. 



From these circumstances though I certainly 

 would not refuse to buy a race-horse because he 

 would bite me, or a hunter because he might be 

 disposed to do so, if I was careless in going up to 

 him ; yet I certainly would not buy a determined 

 biter for general use, for sucli horses must often be 

 given in charge to strangers, and the bare dread 

 of a person being disabled or injured for life by a 

 horse that I felt it was dangerous to commit to 

 his charge, would keep me in a constant fidget ; 

 and should such a catastrophe take place, an 

 owner who felt apathetically on the occasion, 

 would deserve to be worried by his own horse. 

 The purchaser must not be deterred from pur- 

 chasing, or induced to purchase, from what he may 

 see of a horse out of the stable, so far as regards 

 the vice of biting when in. Many, when out of 

 it, will lay back their ears, seeming to snap at any 

 passer by ; these are rarely determined biters : 

 they might give a person a nip, it is true; if 

 they did, they would then themselves become 

 alarmed, and a trifling pinch would be all the mis- 

 chief perpetrated. It is really with such horses 



