ACCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH RESTRAINT. 



145 



pacific animal, no harm will be done ; he will wait for assis- 

 tance. But a troublesome or timid horse often injures him- 

 self. By attending to the length of the rein, and to the mode 

 of securing it, this accident need never happen. A liberating 

 ring, however, has been invented, and is used in some places 



to guard against it. 



Fig. 14. 



The ring, made of malleable iron, is attached to a cast-iron 

 bolt, which slides into a socket of the same material, and is 

 retained by a spring. This socket is fixed to the manger, 

 with its open end down. As long as the ring is pulled up or 

 back, it remains fast ; but when pulled downward, it comes 

 away, and the horse is free. This is useful where the manger 

 is too low, and can not be raised, but it gives little security 

 against halter-casting. When the hind-foot gets over the rein, 

 the strain is rather downward, but chiefly backward ; and a 

 back pull will not free the ring. Still it may possibly be 

 drawn out in the horse's struggles. The bolt should be pulled 

 out occasionally and oiled, that it may not rust, and stick too 

 firmly in the socket. 



Leaping into the Manger. — Young idle horses sometimes 

 set their fore-feet into the manger, for the purpose, I suppose, 

 of looking about them. This can rarely happen when the 

 manger is at the proper height, and the halter-rein of the 

 proper length. When a horse is observed in this situation, 

 he must not be rashly struck to bring him down. Go to his 

 head, loose the binding, and set the horse back, keeping his 

 head well up, and rather off you. I remember a very trouble- 

 some horse that had a trick of leaping into the manger. One 



13 



