VICIOUS HORSES. 
101 
knows they can sting; he fears, therefore, they will hurt him, and 
strikes at them to drive them a\vay. The horse does the same 
thing. I will answer for it, he has often been much more hurt by 
man than man ever was by a wasp. It will be said by some, that 
the certain death of a hundred animals, of no pecuniary value, is 
not to be put in competition with the smallest pain to man. I am 
not quite satisfied of this, for I daily see many common animal pro¬ 
pensities in man, but no superfluity of animal virtues. 
I have known several horses who were vicious as to kicking in 
the stable become perfectly quiet towards those they got accus¬ 
tomed to ; but I never knew, or heard of, one biter that left off the 
practice of biting. It is a vice or habit incurable. 
One thing is quite certain; let vice arise from what cause it 
may, no man should purchase a vicious horse if he intends him for 
any purpose that would occasion his being placed in the hands of 
strangers; and this will hold good more with an inveterate biter 
than with the horse that kicks. It is easy to watch, and conse¬ 
quently avoid a horse’s heels; but a regular biter is all but certain 
to pin a stranger; in fact, he often catches those aware of his 
tricks, and his bite is awful. 
There is another, though rather uncommon vice, that some horses 
shew in the stable, this is— 
Squeezing , or, in Stable Phrase , “pinning one ” against the 
Standing. 
This very singular habit certainly looks more like determined 
vice than either biting or kicking, both of which are the acts of the 
moment; the other seems like a premeditated intent to injure us, 
and injure us it certainly would, most seriously, if he caught us 
just at the place and moment when we should derive all the full 
benefit of the favour intended. 
The horse who has this vice watches till either in going up to, 
or in coming away from him, we are about opposite to his hip; he 
then, without any preparatory motion to put us on our guard, 
throws his hind quarters, with all the force he is capable of, against 
the standing. Should he catch us in certain positions, it would be 
almost certain death; but in any way, if caught at all, we must 
sustain serious injury. 
I can in no way soften down this vice into a trick, or act of the 
moment; and if horses were tried for their lives, ^very jury would 
very properly bring this in malice prepense ; in fact, premeditated 
murder, if death ensued. Still we must bear in mind, that pro¬ 
bably the animal, even here, tries to injure us lest we may injure 
him. Or from hatred of us for injuries received, he might be, like 
Othello , not naturally savage, but have been vexed and worked on 
VOL. XXII. P 
