AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
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fearless; he should carelessly and confidently approach the 
Horse, mount at the first effort, and then restrain him for 
a while patting him, and not suffering him to proceed until 
he becomes perfectly quiet. These Horses should not 
be too highly fed, and should daily have sufficient exer- 
cise. 
When the difficulty of mounting arises not from eager- 
ness to start, but unwillingness to be ridden, the sooner 
such Horse is disposed of the better. He may be con- 
quered by a determined rider, but a skilful and determin- 
ed horseman alone will manage him; and even he will not 
succeed without frequent and even dangerous contests 
that will mar all the pleasure of the ride. 
HEARING. 
This sometimes results from playfulness, carried indeed 
to an unpleasant and dangerous extent; but it is oftener a 
vice, and is a desperate and frequently successful effort to 
unhorse the rider. The Horse that has twice decidedly 
and dangerously reared, should never be trusted again, 
unless indeed it be the fault of the rider — unless he has been 
using a deep curb and sharp bit. Some of the best Horses 
will contend against these, and then rearing may be im- 
mediately and permanently cured by using a snaffle bridle 
alone. 
The horse-breaker’s remedy, that of pulling the Horse 
backward on a soft piece of ground, is worthy of him, and 
would be practised only by reckless and brutal men. 
Many Horses have been injured in the spine, and others 
have broken their necks, by being thus suddenly brought 
over; while even the horse-breaker, who fears no danger, 
is not always able to extricate himself from the falling 
Horse. If rearing proceeds from vice, and is unprovoked 
by the bruising and laceration of the mouth, it fully par- 
takes of the inveteracy which attends the other divisions 
of restiveness. 
RUNNING AWAY. 
Some headstrong Horses will occasionally endeavour to 
bolt with the best rider. Others, with their wonted saga- 
city, endeavour thus to dislodge the timid or unskilful. 
Some are hard to hold, or bolt only during the excite- 
ment of the chase; others will run away, prompted by a 
vicious propensity alone. There is no cure here. That 
method which affords any probability of success, is to ride 
such a Horse with a strong curb and sharp bit; to have 
him always firmly in hand; and if he will run away, and 
the place will admit of it, to give him, (sparing neither 
curb, whip, nor spur,) a great deal more running than he 
likes. 
VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 
It would scarcely be believed to what an extent this exists 
in some Horses, that are otherwise perfectly quiet. It is 
only at great hazard that they can be cleaned at all. The 
origin of this is probably some maltreatment. There is a 
great difference in the sensibility of the skin in different 
Horses. Some seem as if they could scarcely be made to 
feel the whip; others cannot bear a fty to alight on them 
without an expression of annoyance. In young Horses 
the skin is peculiarly delicate. If they have been curried 
with a broken comb, or hardly rubbed with an uneven 
brush, the recollection of the torture they have felt makes 
them impatient, and even vicious, during every succeed- 
ing operation of the kind. Many grooms, likewise, seem 
to delight in producing these exhibitions of uneasi- 
ness and vice; although when they are carried a little too 
far, and to the hazard of the limbs of the groom, the ani- 
mals that have been almost tutored into these expressions 
of irritation, are brutally kicked and punished. 
This, however, is a vice which may be conquered. If 
the animal be dressed with a lighter hand, and whisped 
rather than brushed, and the places where the skin is most 
sensitive be avoided as much as thorough cleanliness will 
allow, the Horse will gradually lose the recollection of 
former ill-treatment, and become tractable and quiet. 
VICIOUS TO SHOE. 
The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of 
the smith; yet the master should diligently concern him- 
self with it, for it is oftener the consequence of injudicious 
or bad usage than of natural vice. It may be expected that 
there will be some difficulty in shoeing a young Horse for 
the first few times. It is an operation which gives him a 
little uneasiness. The man to whom he is most accustom- 
ed should go with him to the forge; and if another and 
steady Horse were shod before him, he might be induced 
more readily to submit. We cannot deny, that after the 
habit of resisting this necessary operation is formed, force 
may sometimes be necessary to reduce our rebellious ser- 
vant to obedience; but we affirm, that the majority of 
Horses vicious to shoe are rendered so by harsh usage, 
and by the pain of correction being added to the uneasi- 
ness of shoeing. It should be a rule in every forge that 
no smith should be permitted to strike a Horse, much less 
to twitch or to gag him, ivithout the master-farrier’s order; 
and that a young Horse should never be twitched or 
struck. There, are few Horses that may not be gradu- 
ally rendered manageable for this purpose by mildness 
and firmness in the operator. They will soon understand 
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