222 Restivencss : Its Prevention and Cure* 



per, and sometimes in a combination of two or more of 

 these. 



With young animals especially, defects of conforma- 

 tion — as weak backs, hind quarters, or something abnor- 

 mal about the head and neck — lead them into insubor- 

 dination in self-defence. Want of ability to do the 

 work demanded of them, in consequence of defective 

 condition, will produce the same effect both in young 

 and old horses ; starvation is, therefore, in most in- 

 stances, a posfitively injurious instead of a curative pro- 

 cess. No doubt a horse's temper may be subdued to a 

 certain extent by this means, but then it becomes unfit 

 to do work, so that nothing is gained in the end. As 

 regards disposition, some horses refuse their work from 

 sheer sluggishness ; others, again, from timidity or irri- 

 tability. This latter is very frequently the case with 

 mares, especially at certain seasons of the year, and 

 may be very often remedied by putting them to stud for 

 one or two years. It is obvious that one method of 

 treatment is not applicable to these very different cases. 

 Finally, a merely passionate temper requires different 

 management from a dogged one ; while sheer vice is 

 the most difficult of all to deal with, and usually a con- 

 sequence of injudicious treatment. When all this has 

 been well considered and the cause or causes of restive- 

 ncss ascertained, one can begin to work with some 

 chance of success, otherwise not. 



The second general rule is very easily deducible from 

 the first — it is this : avoid giving the horse an opportu- 

 nity of resisting your will successfully so long as it pos- 

 sesses the means of doing so — that is to say, until you 

 have acquired, by the means already described, com- 

 plete control over its movements. Therefore have your 

 horse led into a riding-school or some enclosed space 

 where it has never shown restiveness, and do your work 

 there, and after each lesson dismount again, loosening 



