158 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



giving way under the weight imposed on it ; but hitting 

 him when it has so given way as to cause a stumble cannot 

 recall the stumble, but will very probably increase its 

 effects. 



If blundering arises from formation, no stick or spurs, 

 apply them when you will, can alter that ; and if from 

 formation the horse cannot put his foot fairly on the 

 ground, blunder he wdll and must ; he cannot help it, so 

 how can correction do any good in this case ? 



When arising from gait, correction with the whip or 

 stick, vv^hen he stumbles, will not alter gait ; but the hands 

 with the whip and spurs as aids, may, if properly used, 

 when he is not stumbling. Correcting the cause may do a 

 great deal of good ; but correcting, or rather punishing, the 

 animal w^ill not prevent or remedy the effect, which is 

 stumbling. 



Should he blunder from sheer indolence, correct the 

 indolence as much as you please. If he will not be roused 

 to energy, or, at all events, to quick motions by a switch, 

 lay a tough ash plant about him ; and if a touch of the 

 spurs will not stimulate, give him a pair of good new 

 rowels, and they will, by making so lazy a brute move 

 more quickly, make him move more safely. We often find 

 unsafe horses tolerably the reverse in their fast paces. 

 Why is this ? If we make a lazy horse trot three miles in 

 twelve or fifteen minutes, he must move his legs quickly ; 

 this causes such horses going more safely in fast paces. 

 If they would also step quickly in their slower paces, 

 they would be safe in them. If a horse will walk cheer- 

 fully four miles and a half an hour, we generallj^ find him 

 as safe in a walk as a trot. The lazy horse has not energy 

 enough to do this, nor are pains enough taken with him 

 in his walk to make him do it ; he must, when the whip 

 and spurs force him into a fast trot. But no longer pipe, 

 no longer dance ; and as these cease so soon as he is 

 allowed to walk, all his energy ceases also, and then he 

 blunders again — and so he will as long as he is a horse. 



There is yet another and very frequent cause for a horse 

 tripping, blundering, or even falling — which is fatigue. In 

 this case, striking him for doing what he cannot avoid is 

 absolute cruelty and injustice, and done, as on all occasions, 

 when he has tripped or blundered, is perfectly useless. 

 No doubt the whip and spur, plied when he is not blunder- 



