PRESIDENT—THE EARL OE CLARENDON - . 
107 
There are instances innumerable of the deep affection entertained 
by the horse for his master, as also on the other hand of his dislike 
and terror of those who perhaps have been guilty of only a single 
act of cruelty towards him. Many years ago a race-horse famed in 
the annals of the turf, and who has transmitted to his posterity 
that same power of gaining equine triumphs which he himself 
possessed, was, on the occasion of a severe race, unnecessarily 
spurred by his jockey, a past master in the craft of riding, who 
still lives. Ever after, when the same jockey was about to mount, 
the horse cowered, winced, and broke into profuse perspiration, 
although in other hands he was perfectly tractable and showed no 
signs of fear. 
Those who interest themselves in such matters hear a great deal 
about vice in horses, and doubtless in some of the equine, as of the 
human race, nature has implanted a vicious habit and character 
which is ineradicable; but education both of man and beast should 
be conducted with forbearance, tempered by firmness, and in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred what is termed the vicious horse has 
been rendered so by acts of brutality or words and gestures of 
violence during his early training. It is of paramount importance 
with a high-couraged animal such as the horse, to allay fear and to 
establish confidence, and his future character and career depend 
almost entirely upon a judicious blindness to his faults and kind¬ 
ness to his virtues on the part of those to whom his education is 
entrusted. Who is there amongst us who has not seen what is 
called a jibbing horse ? The “ nostrum ” applied by way of a cure 
more often than not is a succession of blows; but generally speaking, 
one need not look far for the reason, which is not so much obduracy 
on the part of the horse, but that the burden is too severe for his 
powers, or that his harness galls him in some way or other, and puts 
him to unspeakable tortures in the performance of his allotted task. 
Within the limits of the land there is no Society more deserving of 
encouragement and support, whose objects are more praiseworthy 
than those of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
and at their instigation acts of brutality and cruelty receive, as 
they deserve, condign punishment. Everybody should be a self- 
constituted champion of humanity, but it is possible to go too far 
in this direction, and to entertain strained ideas concerning the 
comfort and discomfort of the brute creation. Diatribes have 
frequently appeared in the newspapers on the use of the bearing- 
rein for carriage-horses, which when properly used and lightly 
