382 
MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 
danger of laming themselves. This often proceeds from a 
very sensitive skin, and at other times from their grooms 
having inflicted severe chastisement on some former occasion 
when cleaning. Besides, ill-disposed grooms, by teasing the 
animals, or currying them with a broken-toothed comb or 
uneven-surfaced brush, teach them this bad habit, and have 
even a delight in seeing the animals show their teeth ; and 
this is continued until it becomes a fixed vice. If a 
change of groom takes place, what was done partly in 
play is then manifested in anger, and serious injuries have 
been inflicted upon the unsuspecting stranger. It therefore 
behoves grooms to be cautious how they handle a strange 
horse. 
There is much variety in the sensibility of the skin of 
horses, some being so tender that moderate rubbing gives 
them uneasiness, while others are so much the reverse that 
the whip hardly excites it. 
It will not be difficult to overcome this vicious habit. 
When the groom discovers it, the best plan is to use a 
gentle hand while cleaning, and lean lightly on those parts 
which seem most sensitive ; and avoid punishing the animal 
for exhibiting restifiness, and he will soon lose all recol¬ 
lection of the former ill-treatment which he had received 
from his groom, and become quiet and steady. 
RESTIFFNESS WHILE SHOEING. 
When a young horse is first shod, great caution should be 
used, and gentle means adopted to induce the animal to sub¬ 
mit to this novel operation ; and it would be much better to 
pay the smith a small gratuity for his loss of time in coaxing 
the horse to submit to it, than to use the gag hurriedly. It 
must naturally be expected that a young animal will exhibit 
uneasiness for the first few times he is taken to the smithy. 
