112 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



occasional severe injury from bis own struggles, but also 

 from the correction of the irritated smith, whose limbs 

 and even whose life being in jeopardy, may be forgiven 

 if he is sometimes a little too hard-handed. Such a horse 

 is very liable, and without any fault of the smith, to be 

 pricked and lamed in shoeing ; and if the habit should be 

 confirmed, and should increase, and it at length becomes 

 necessary to cast him, or to put him in the travis, the owner 

 may be assured that many years will not pass ere some 

 formidable and even fatal accident will take place. If, 

 therefore, mild treatment will not correct the vice, the 

 horae cannot be too soon got rid of." We have seen recently 

 a very simple method tried to make a horse still while 

 shoeing. It is merely fastening down one ear. 



Eating Litter. — The rack-rein and muzzle at once indi- 

 cate the mechanical means of preventing this pernicious 

 habit. For this purpose, we would recommend a rack-rein 

 and muzzle, to be alternately used ; when the one is taken 

 off, the other to be put on. For iuvstance, you put on the 

 muzzle when you wish or expect the horse to lie down ; 

 consequently you put it on at leaving the stable at night. 

 Some horses will eat the litter even when it is very foul; 

 and when fresh litter is given, others will prefer it to hay ; 

 and though clean straw is not injurious to horses that are 

 not required to gallop much, yet hunters and racers must 

 not be permitted to eat it. The rack-rein is an iron chain 

 fixed at the head of the stall, which passes through a ring 

 sewed in front of the nose-band of the stall- collar ; it is 

 fastened in the same manner as a dog's chain to the ring in 

 the collar, and when dressing the horse, you can, after 

 passing it through the collar, fasten him as short as you 

 think proper ; but, at other times, the chain must be long 

 enough to permit the horse to feed out of his rack or 

 manger, though not to let his head reach down to his litter. 



Some horse-keepers place a piece of rock salt in the 

 manger to wean the horse from his foul feeding, and satisfy 

 his morbid appetite. It is worth a trial. 



VICES ON THE ROAD. 



Restive to Mount. — The term " restiveness " may be said 

 to include plunging, rearing, kicking, bolting, and general 

 impatience while being mounted. Even it one resolute or 



