ILL-USING HORSES. 
56 7 
ILL-USING HORSES. 
To the Editor of ‘The Veterinarian d 
Dear Sir, — Allow me to draw the attention of your 
readers to a subject, which, although at first sight may 
appear a very unimportant one, yet, on a second view, seems to 
contain largely the tendency to mischief and misfortune ; and 
the veterinary profession, I think, may safely be looked to, 
as likely to exercise a considerable influence in obviating the 
evil. I allude to the practice so common at horse-fairs, 
dealers 5 yards, &c., of rattling a stick and hat together, with 
the avowed object of frightening horses. It seems very 
questionable whether it be judicious, or the contrary, to teach 
a horse to be afraid at all; but, to associate in the animal 5 s 
intelligence, terror on the one hand, and an article which may 
accidentally at any time create terror, on the other, appears 
very thoughtless. I have known many a case of tumble and 
run away, from just so simple a thing as a bat coming 
clattering to the ground. Not many horses will stand it . 
But what else can we look for? The last time they heard the 
sound, it, in all probability, was in connection with whips 
and sticks, fright, &c. 
I have frequently heard it very gravely recommended by 
very knowing horsemen, to under-feed horses that are difficult 
to break. I suppose, on the presumption that hunger will 
tame a lion. I doubt if mere hunger ever tamed anything ; 
starvation might, but even then, the tameness, apparently, is 
more the result of the subsequent kindness than the previous 
cruelty. From a trial of my own, I infer the practice to be 
a very bad one. That “ an angry man is a hungry one,” is 
proverbially true, this being one of the laws of organisation ; 
hence the soundness of British philosophy, in celebrating 
everything with a dinner ; and I can see how an organisation, 
disqualified to perform well the alimentary functions, should 
be attended, as often as it is in horses, with a fretful, bad 
temper, vide what we call weakly animals. 
Horses, however, on the whole, get pretty severely punished 
for being made this way. Others of them, from careless 
breaking, riding, or disease, get a habit of stumbling, to which 
the punishing is applied very often as a remedy ; and, 
although I never saw it do any good myself, and perhaps 
nobody else ever did either, yet I suppose it is impossible to 
allow such aggravated disobedience to go unpunished. 
Horses frequently come under the rod for shying, as if 
