62 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
of furze fastened against the partition or post will sometimes effect a 
cure When the horse finds that he is pretty severely pricked, he will 
not long continue to punish himself. In confirmed cases it may be 
necessary to have recourse to the log, but the legs are often not a little 
bruised by it. A rather long and heavy piece of wood attached to a 
chain lias been buckled above the hock, so as to reach about halt-way 
down the leg. When the horse attempts to kick violently, his leg will 
receive a severe blow : this, and the repetition of it may, after a time, 
teach him to be quiet. , , , 
A much more serious vice is kicking in harness, trom tlie least 
annoyance about the rump or quarters, some horses will kick at a most 
violent rate, and destroy the bottom of the chaise, and endanger the 
limbs of the driver. Those that are fidgety in the stable are most apt 
to do this. If the reins should perchance get under the tail, the vio- 
lence of the kicker will often be most outrageous ; and while the animal 
presses down his tail so tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate 
the reins, he continues to plunge until he has demolished every thing 
behind him. . , , . , 
This is a vice standing foremost in point of danger, and which no 
treatment will always conquer. It will be altogether in vain to try 
coercion. If the shafts are very strong and without flaw, or if they are 
plated with iron underneath, and a stout kicking-strap resorted to 
which will barely allow the horse the proper use of his hind limbs in 
progression, but not permit him to raise them sufficiently for the purpose 
of kicking, he may be prevented from doing mischief; or, if he is har- 
nessed to a heavy cart, and thus confined, his efforts to lash out will be 
restrained: but it is frequently a very unpleasant thing to witness these 
attempt, though ineffectual, to demolish the vehicle, for the shafts or 
the kicking-strap may possibly break, and extreme danger may ensue. 
A horse that has once begun to kick, whatever may have been the 
original cause of it, can never be depended upon again, and he will be 
very unwise who ventures behind him. The man, however, who must 
come within reach of a kicker should come as close to him as possible. 
The blow may thus become a push, and seldom is injurious.* 
Unsteadiness while being Mounted.— When this merely amounts to eager- 
ness to start — very unpleasant, indeed, at times, for many a rider has been 
thrown from his seat before he was fairly fixed in it — it may be remedied 
by an active and good horseman. We have known many instances in 
which, while the elderly, and inactive and fearful man has been making 
more than one ineffectual attempt to vault into the saddle, the horse 
has been dancing about to his annoyance and danger; but the animal 
had no sooner been transferred to the management of a younger and 
more agile rider than he became perfectly subdued. Severity will here, 
more decidedly than in any other case, do harm. The rider should be 
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. 
* See Rarey's Method of correcting this and other vices, at page 36. 
