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1863. 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMER. 



151 



The awards will be announced and the insignia 

 thereof affixed to the prize implements on Wednes- 

 day, September 30th, the third day of the Fair. 

 For further information address V ' 



John P. Reynolds, 

 Cor. Sec. III. State Ag. Society, Springfield. 



Abuse of Curb and Check Rein. 



We have a serious intention of erecting our- 

 selves into a Permanent Institution for the Relief 

 of Distressed Animals. 



As we go upon our daily. beat through the city, 

 our sense of " horsemanity " is almost daily out- 

 raged by what we see at the rails and posts along 

 the curb stones. Country people come in with their 

 generally well kept horses, and hitch them up 

 while thay do their shopping or other errands, 

 which sometimes take a half a day or more. Now 

 these people have not the slightest intention to 

 abuse their horses ; on the contrary, many of them 

 would fight for their steeds as soon as they would 

 for their wives or children ; but this is the way 

 they do it : most of those who come on horseback 

 ride a Spanish saddle with a high pomel, and with 

 a short bridle rein. They dismount, aad to keep 

 the bridle rein from getting over the horse's head, 

 they hitch it back over the pomel, by which it is 

 drawn tight, and the horse's head slightly curbed. 

 If the horse was in motion, this slight curb would 

 cause very little uneasiness, but while all the mus- 

 cles are at rest, this tension becomes exceedingly 

 painful, especially as many of these country horses 

 are not at any other time subjected to the curb. 

 The horse bears it very well for a little while, but 

 soon begins to step out and champ the bit, and if 

 it had the gift once vouchsafed to Balaam'i? ass, 

 would reprove his owner with all the modern im- 

 provements of the language. But as the poor 

 brute has no such faculty, and as the rider 

 is the ass in this ' case it must grin and bear 

 it ; unless, indeed, the Horse Editor of the Ohio 

 Farmer happens along, and quietly putting a finger 

 under the rein, fillips it off the horn, and goes on 

 as innocently as if nothing had happened, while 

 the relieved animal holds out his grateful nose and 

 says, " thank you old fellow !" in a kind of horse 

 latin, that is perfectly intelligible to the editor 

 aforesaid. 



But this is only one phase in the abuse of the 

 check rein. Farmers are not the only sinners in 

 this respect ; in fact, they are least guilty, and it 

 IS because their horses are so seldom subject to 

 check, that they suffer most intensely when it is 

 imposed, Our town and city folks have most to 

 answer for. Here we see even the cart boys, with 

 a ton of sand in the cart, and the poor horse — 



cheeked up most unmercifully, because the ragged 

 driver takes as much pride in having his team look 

 well, as his more aristocratic predecessor ; and at 

 every jar of the cart, or misstep of the poor dam- 

 aged brute that halls it, the latter gets the full 

 benefit of the jolt upon his jaws, which are by this 

 time providentially pretty well hardened. 



The evil begins much farther back. The colt in 

 the barn yard that has never known restraint un- 

 til now he is some three years old, is roughly 

 caught and a bit forced in his mouth, a crupper 

 put over his tail, and a belt around his body, and 

 then his nose drawn in half way to his breast, 

 when he is left to suffer and sulk, sometimes for 

 half a day. When this editor was a lad he was 

 guilty of just such enormities, but these are among 

 the original sins of which he has most heartily 

 repented. In breaking a «olt to bit, the rein should 

 never be drawn so as to cause positive pain in the 

 muscles of the neck ; for, besides the Inhumanity 

 and uselessness of such a course, the horse's mouth 

 is irretrievably damaged by it for all future use ; 

 a good mouth is indispensable for a good saddle 

 horse. 



When the horse goes into harness, again comes 

 the abominable curb, to make him hold up his 

 heard. As before remarked, in a lithe horse, with 

 all his muscles in action, a moderate curb is not 

 very painful, and is often useful after long habit, 

 in steadying his can-iage ; it is like every other 

 bad habit in this respect. But to hitch up the 

 team to a post, leaving the curbs tightly drawn, is 

 an unmitigated abuse. Every day we see fine car- 

 riage teams standing in that way, left by the hour. 

 The noble beast first puts out his fore feet, then 

 gathers again, and turns his neck quite to hia side, 

 then to the other side, to relieve the aching mus- 

 cles, and all because the thoughtless driver had 

 neglected to take the check reins out of the hooks, 

 or for fear his team would get their heads down. 

 On Sundays our devotions are often very much 

 disturbed by such sights. Fine carriage teams are 

 trussed up for two hours at the church door, some- 

 times hot and in fly time; they can only twitch 

 their skin and wag a stump of a tail ; sometimes 

 in winter, with the keen winds singing in their 

 ears, and their fore feet in the slush of the gutter. 

 In such cases, if it were not for disturbing better 

 worshippers, we would like to throw a torpedo into 

 the pew of the owner, who ought to be made to 

 sit astride of a sharp rail without any cushion on 

 it, all the time his team was hitched up in that 

 way. — OMo Farmer. ■ ■ : -/ ■; 



— The above is good horse sense, and we hope 

 our guilty readers will ask pardon of their horses, 

 and sin no more in that foolish way. — ^Ed. 



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