THE HOKSE. 
35 
deleterious— affecting the sight— and have hailed, with gratified feelings, 
the slight movement that has been made in this country to dispose of 
them. Mr. Rarey says : 
“ I l ake great pleasure in stating that all my experience with and ob- 
servation of horses proves clearly to me that blinkers should not be 
used, and that the sight of the horse, for many reasons, should not be 
interfered with in any way. Horses are only fearful of objects which 
they do not understand, or are not familiar with, and the eye is one of 
the principal mediums by which this understanding and this familiarity 
arc brought about. 
“The horse, on account of his very amiable nature, can be made, in 
the course of time, to bear almost any thing in any shape ; but there is 
a quicker process of reaching his intelligence than that of wearing it 
into him through his skin and bones ; and he, however wild or nervous, 
can be taught in a very short time to understand and not to fear any 
object, however frightful in appearance. Horses can be broken in less 
time and better without blinkers; but horses that have always worn 
them will notice the sudden change, and must be treated carefully the 
first drive. After that, they will drive better without the blinkers than 
with them. 
“ I have proved, by my own experiments, that a horse broken with- 
out blinkers can be driven past any omnibus, cab, or carriage, on a 
parallel line as close as it is possible for him to go, without ever waver- 
ing or showing any disposition to dodge. I have not in the last eight 
or ten years, constantly handling horses both wild and nervous, ever put 
blinkers on any of them, and in no ease have I ever had one that was 
afraid of the carriage he drew behind him or of those he passed in the 
streets. 
“The horse’s eye is the life and beauty of the animal, as well as the 
index of all his emotions. It tells the driver, in the most impressive 
characters, what the horse’s feelings are. By it he can tell the first ap- 
proach of fear in time to meet any difficulty ; he can tell if he is happy 
or sad, hungry or weary. The horse, too, when permitted to see, uses 
his eyes with great judgment. He sees better than we do. He can 
measure distances with his eyes better than we can, and, if allowed free 
use of them, would often save himself; by the quickness of his sight, 
from collisions, when the driver would fail to do so by a timely puli’ of 
the reins. It would also save many accidents to pedestrians in the 
streets, as no horse will run on to any person that he can see. * * * 
I have yet to find the man who, having once left them off, could ever be 
persuaded to put them on again. They are an unnecessary and in- 
jurious incumbrance to the horse, and I feel confident, if the cabmen 
of London will leave them off for one year, that blinkers on cab-horses 
will never be seen again in the streets, and will only be a thing to be 
read of as one of the follies happily reformed in the nineteenth cen- 
tury.” 
to Drive a Kicking Horse. — Bend up the near fore-foot (see fig. 1, first 
position), then draw a loop over the knee and up to the pastern joint, 
and secure it there. The horse cannot kick while standing on three 
legs, and there is this further advantage, handling in this plight con- 
