KICKERS. 255 



on the thousand and first they are immolated by a 

 half-educated horse. 



I have in another place stated that I have by choice 

 driven at times determined kickers. I did not show 

 my sense in doing this ; but why I drove them by 

 choice was not certainly because they ivere kickers, 

 but because they were horses or mares of extraor- 

 dinary capabilities, and were driven in vehicles adapted 

 to such customers, and fastened down and held by 

 tackle, they could not break, and then no valuable 

 lives were risked behind them : but even with this, 

 the folly or foolhardiness of one man is not to be 

 brought forward as an example to others. 



I remember once overtaking Probyn (well known 

 as Captain Probyn in the Driving World) on the 

 Hounslow road with a mare in a Stanhope. "For 

 God's sake," cried he, seeing me, " don't come near us, 

 or she will kick like thunder." This was all very 

 well for Probyn ; but give such a mare into the hands 

 of a man who was not a coachman, who would have 

 let a rein touch her loins, where would he be ? True, 

 this was a kicker ; but unless a good-tempered horse is 

 taught to bear the ordinary casualties that are likely 

 to occur in harness, the probability is, /ear, if 

 not temper, may show that he can kick too. 



For some proof of what little trouble it takes to 

 accustom young horses to bear anything that does 

 not absolutely put them to pain, let any man notice 

 cart-colts. Now these, unwieldy as they may look, 

 can, when they please, show an activity and quick- 

 ness of motion that would surprise persons unaccus- 

 tomed to observe them. Often have I seen cart- 

 horses take a high gate when hounds have run by. 

 Few horses are more playful than cart-colts when in 



