AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
213 
From the Library of Useful Knowledge. 
THE VICES AND DISAGREEABLE OR DAN- 
GEROUS HABITS OF THE HORSE. 
The Horse has many excellent qualities, but he has 
likewise defects, and these occasionally amounting to 
vices. Some of them may be attributed to natural tem- 
per; for the human being scarcely discovers more pecu- 
liarities of habit and disposition, than does the Horse. 
The majority of them, however, as perhaps in the human 
being, are consequences of a faulty education. Their 
early instructor has been both ignorant and brutal, and 
they have become obstinate and vicious. 
RESTIFNESS. 
At the head of the vices of the Horse we place restifness, 
the most annoying, and the most dangerous of all. It is 
the produce of bad temper and worse education; and, like 
all othSr habits founded on nature and stamped by educa- 
tion, it is inveterate. Whether it appears in the form of 
kicking, or rearing, or plunging, or bolting, or in any 
way that threatens danger to the rider or the Horse, it 
rarely admits of cure. A determined rider may, to a 
certain degree, subjugate the animal; or the Horse may 
have his favourites, or form his attachments, and with 
some particular person he may be comparatively or per- 
fectly manageable; but others cannot long depend upon 
him, and even his master is not always sure of him. We 
will speak of the most likely means of cure, or escaping 
from danger, as it regards the principal forms under which 
restifness displays itself; but we must premise as a rule 
that admits of very few exceptions, that he neither displays 
his wisdom, nor consults his safety, who attempts to con- 
quer a restilf Horse. 
An excellent veterinary surgeon, and a man of great 
experience in Horses, Mr. Castley, truly says, in “The 
Veterinarian:” “ From whatever cause the vicious habits 
of Horses may originate, whether from some mismanage- 
ment, or from natural badness of temper, or from what is 
called in Yorkshire a mist etch, whenever these animals 
acquire one of them, and it becomes in some degree con- 
firmed, they very seldom, if ever, altogether forget it. In 
reference to driving, it is so true, that it may be taken as 
a kind of aphorism, that if a Horse kicks once in harness, 
no matter from what cause, he will be liable to kick ever 
afterwards. A good coachman may drive him, it is true — 
and may make him go, but he cannot make him forget his 
vice; and so it is in riding. You may conquer a restiff 
H h h 
Horse; you may makehimridequietformonths, nay, almost 
for years together, but I affirm, that under other circum- 
stances and at some future opportunity, he will be sure to 
return to his old tricks again.” 
Mr. Castley gives two singular and conclusive instances 
of the truth of this doctrine. “When a very young man,” 
says he, “ I remember purchasing a Horse at a fair in the 
north of England, that was offered very cheap on account 
of his being unmanageable. It was said that nobody could 
ride him. We found that the animal objected to have any 
thing placed upon his back, and that, when made to move 
forward with nothing more than a saddle on, he instantly 
threw himself down on his side with great violence, and 
would then endeavour to roll upon his back. 
“ There was at that time in Yorkshire, a famous colt- 
breaker, known by the name of Jumper, who was almost 
as celebrated in that country for taming vicious Horses 
into submission, as the famed Whisperer was in Ireland. 
We put this animal into Jumper’s hands, who took him 
away, and in about ten days brought him home again, cer- 
tainly not looking worse in condition, but perfectly sub- 
dued and almost as obedient as a dog: for he would lie 
down at this man’s bidding, and only rise again at his 
command, and carry double or any thing. I took to riding 
him myself, and may say, that I was never better carried 
for six or eight months, during which time he never show- 
ed the least vice whatever. I then sold him to a Lin- 
colnshire farmer, who said that he would give him a sum- 
mer’s run at grass, and show him a very fine Horse at the 
great Horncastle fair. 
“ Happening to meet this gentleman the following year, 
1 naturally enough inquired after my old friend. ‘Oh,’ 
said he, ‘ that was a bad business — the Horse turned out a 
sad rebel. The first time we attemped to mount him, after 
getting him up from grass, he in an instant threw the man 
down with the greatest violence, pitching him several 
yards over his head; and after that he threw every one 
that attempted to get on his back. If he could not throw 
his rider, he would throw himself down. We could do 
nothing with him, and I was obliged at last to sell him to 
go in a stage-coach. ’ ” 
In the next story, Jumper’s counterpart and superior, 
the Irish Whisperer, is brought on the stage, and, although 
he performs wonders, he cannot radically cure a restiff 
Horse. “ At the Spring Meeting of 1804, Mr. Whalley’s 
King Pippin was brought on the Curragh of Kildare to 
run. He was a Horse of the most extraordinary savage 
and vicious disposition. His particular propensity was 
that of flying at and worrying any person who came with- 
in his reach, and if he had an opportunity, he would get 
his head round, seize his rider by the leg with his teeth, 
