368 
MANUAL OF MODEM FARRIERT. 
patient treatment alone that we can hope to succeed in 
rendering this valuable animal truly useful and docile. I 
have no doubt but in nine cases out of ten, where horses 
exhibit furious or stubborn tempers, that these have been pro¬ 
duced from the cruelty and ignorance of their first trainers. 
RESTIFFNESS. 
The most unpleasant and dangerous of all vices possessed 
by the horse is that of restiffness. Sometimes this proceeds 
from a naturally bad temper, and at others from faultiness 
in education. This term includes plunging, rearing, kick¬ 
ing, bolting, and general impatience while mounting. A 
horse with any of the above faults can never be depended 
upon, for, although we may use means to counteract a 
particular vice, whether by compulsion or gentle measures, 
he may exhibit that vice when we are off our guard and are 
the least expecting it. Force may bring him to obedience, 
and he may succumb to him who has had the determination 
to subjugate him; but when mounted by another he is 
extremely likely to break out again. A horse that kicks in 
harness may be driven with safety by a cautious and expe¬ 
rienced driver or coachman, but still there is no certainty oi 
his not exhibiting the same trick years afterwards ; indeed 
most horses which have been kickers return to it again. 
However high the temper which the horse may exhibit, 
we would recommend that he should be broken from his 
vices by kind and soothing means, and these exercised with 
patience for a considerable length of time ; and force should 
only be resorted to when all other means have failed. 
There have been several striking instances of persons who 
possessed the power of taming vicious horses by gentle 
measures ; the most remarkable is recorded in the Rev. Mr. 
“ Townsend’s Statistical Survey of the County of Cork/’ who 
