Chapter XL 



i 



Fig. 293.— Horse In Nature. 



CHECKING AND BLINDERS. 



Cruelty of Checking. ' 



N Sitting, walking, or standing, every person knows how tiresome 

 it is to maintain one position 'very long, and that a frequent 

 change of position is equivalent to resting. It would be compara- 

 tively easy to move the hand 

 up or down, which could be 

 done almost indefinitely 

 without much inconven- 

 ience ; but to hold it in one 

 position perpendicularly or 

 horizontally, would soon be- 

 come / extremely tiresome 

 and difficult ; in fact, so 

 much so that it would be 

 impossible to hold it out 

 horizontally longer than a 

 few minutes. A French subordinate officer, as a punishment, 

 marched his soldiers all day without allowing them the regulation 

 freedom of changing the position of their arms, which so injured 

 them that it was regarded sufficient cause for inflicting upon him 

 the penalty of death. 



Now, checking horses and 

 forcing them to hold their 

 heads unnaturally high and 

 keeping them thus arbitrarily 

 in a fixed position, as I no- 

 tice to be generally prac- 

 ticed, frequently all day, 

 while perhaps being rapidly 

 driven or worked hard, must 

 be almost equally trying and painful for them to bear, and in 

 connection with the use of blinders is so much of a fault that it 

 cannot but be regarded as the greatest ingratitude and crime to 

 so faithful and useful a servant. 

 (846) 



Fig. 894. — The Horse with Over-check. 



