Chapter Y. 



KICKIKS. 



KICKING is the most common as well as most dangerous habit 

 we have to deal with. It not only destroys the value of the 

 horse most seriously, but makes his use, when it is possible to 

 use him, so unreliable and unsafe as to' be a constant menace of dan- 

 ger and loss. The greatest average of test subjects brought me to 

 experiment upon before classes were in nearly all cases kickers rang- 



Fig. 185.— The Effect of Bad Treatment. 



ing over the unbroken colt that kicked when touched, the colt that 

 would kick and run away, the one that could not be harnessed or 

 hitched with safety, determined runaway kickers, and especially 

 horses that kicked when approached, or from mere habit. We often 

 had horses brought us that had been experimented upon so much as 

 to make them so thoroughly vicious and dangerous in their resist-' 

 ance as to be practically worthless. A great many interesting cases 

 illustrating this could be referred to did space permit ; but to show 

 the value of the treatment here given when properly applied, I will 

 refer only to a few cases, as an aid to the reader in making experi- 

 ments. 



First. A five-year-old stallion, owned in Northern Indiana, that 

 had resisted all treatment. This horse was naturally very gentle, 

 but had been frightened in driving, and could not be put in the 

 (148) ' 



