272 GAGGING, BUT NOT JOKING. 



men elevate his head as high as he could raise it, and 

 then tied the end of the fork-handle to the collar, so 

 there the head was fixed. Every one knows that, if 

 Ave lay a stick across a chair, we cannot elevate one 

 end without depressing the other, unless it be a bend- 

 ing cane. This a horse's spine is not, or at least in a 

 very small degree. Consequently, while the head^vas 

 thus elevated, the rump could 7iot be elevated at the 

 same time, unless the spine was whalebone in the 

 middle. We next got the harness on, crupper and 

 all : he could lash out straight with one hind leg at a 

 time, but kicking was out of the question. He began 

 shaking liis head from side to side to try to loosen 

 the gao- ; two side reins beat him on that tack : he 

 stamped with rage, and no pig undergoing the 

 pleasant operation of ringing squealed louder. We 

 brought the vehicle up ; a man's shoulder to eacb 

 quarter (fixed as he was) kept him straight : in he 

 was in a minute ; he wriggled all he could ; kicked as 

 well as he could, and well he fought ; but it was no 

 use : trot of course he could not, but I made him most 

 majestically walk, and, as I engaged, draw me. We 

 took him out in a perfect lather : he would not want 

 sweating again for some days to come. 



I do not mean to say, nor do I think, this horse 

 could ever have been cured of his propensity to kick. 

 I think it by no means impossible that he might have 

 been deterred from doing so, so as to be driven ; but 

 he was too far gone ever to have been worth the risk. 

 Old offenders as kickers, like biters, never lose the 

 inclination ; at least I never knew one that did ; but 

 if we look to the cause of both vices, they generally, 

 like all ill-manners, proceed from bad education. 



Among all the various purposes to which we apply 



