412 
REVIEW. 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. — Hon. 
Spring Boxes for Halter Reins. 
HORSES high fed and little worked, everybody conversant in 
equestrian matters full well knows, are exceeding apt, in the course 
of the many idle hours they have to spend tied up in their stalls, to 
contract habits and vices which are no less annoying to their 
owners or to their grooms than they are detrimental or injurious to 
themselves. Crib-biting, wind-sucking, kicking, biting, weaving, 
casting, flying-back, striking their knees against the logs, and get- 
ting their legs over the ropes or straps by which they are fastened 
up, constitute the chief of these : and bad enough some of them 
are ; and, moreover, when once established as habits, exceedingly 
difficult to get rid of. The discussion of these several subjects in all 
their various bearings, with an investigation of the means by which 
they are best remedied, would fill a moderate sized volume. On 
the present occasion we have nothing in view beyond the exami- 
nation of some newly-invented spring boxes now lying upon our 
table, the intention of which is to prevent the latter of the evils 
above enumerated, viz. hitting the knee against the log, and get- 
ting the leg over the confining strap or rope. Before, however, 
we proceed to make any comment on this new invention, we owe 
it to experience to premise, in limine , that some of the before- 
named evils or accidents manifestly have their origin, in the great 
majority of cases, in mal-ajustement of the halter apparatus. Com- 
mon sense points out to us, that the head-stall and the strap or rope, 
and log, and the manger-ring through which the strap or rope has 
to play, should be properly adjusted. When such has been at- 
tended to, for our own part we have witnessed but few accidents. 
Still, we are not denying that they may and do occur. Among 
gentlemen’s horses in particular, which in general are idle, and 
often playful and mischievous, they are but too liable every now 
and then to happen ; and may be, and on occasions are, attended 
with serious consequences. A horse, from pawing in his stall, 
strikes his knee against the log, and occasions a swelling upon it, 
which, though it does not lame, disfigures him ; and, what is more, 
which is by no means easily or quickly got rid of, particularly after 
such swelling has received a repetition of blows. Then, a horse 
gets his leg over the strap or rope of the halter, and he may chance 
to get it back again, and so come off simply with a grazed skin, or 
