130 POWER OF HEARING 



of the ears, and that in the expression of the eyes, is 

 very plainly indicative of the difference between vice 

 and mere playfulness. 



The power of hearing in the horse is so acute, owing 

 to the shape of the ear, that it can readily distinguish 

 sounds at a distance at which we ourselves cannot 

 hear them, and will often detect the cry of the hounds 

 long before they are audible to us. No practice can 

 be a more mistaken one than that of cropping the ears 

 of a horse — it is indeed not only cruel, but a fool's 

 work. Fortunately it is nowadays very rarely done. 



Owners of horses are very often in utter ignorance 

 of what takes place in their stables. The cruelty 

 which some grooms, carters especially, are capable of 

 inflicting on the wretched animals in their charge is at 

 times hardly conceivable. 



A bad-tempered stableman is indeed a curse, and 

 such individuals are at times little better than savages 

 — indeed, it may be justly said they are infinitely 

 worse, since the latter do not, as a rule, ill-treat their 

 horses, whatever they may be guilty of towards other 

 animals. 



lojnorance is often more cruel than vice. At times 

 it happens that in his endeavour to make a horse 

 look as * neat ' as possible (according to his way of 

 thinking), the ignorant groom singes the very eye- 

 lashes off the -wretched animal ; and thus what has 

 been given to him as a protection to his eye from the 

 glare of the sun or from dust is taken away. The 

 ' feelers ' on the under lid, so useful, also share the 

 same fate. Touch one of these feelers but ever so 

 lightly, and it is surprising how sensitive they are — a 

 convulsive kind of a twitch at once follows the touch, 



