AN EAST WAY WITH A VICIOUS HORSE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 209, 30 September 1874, Page 2

AN EAST WAY WITH A VICIOUS HORSE.

The Commercial Advertiser, an American paper, says : —“ A beautiful and high-spirited horse would never allow a shoe to be put on his feet, or any person to handle his feet, without a resort to every species of power and means to control him. At one time he was nearly crippled by being put in the stocks; he was afterwards thrown down and fettered ; at another time one of our most experienced horse shoers was unable to manage him by the aid of as many hands as could approach. In an attempt to shoe this horse recently, he resisted all efforts, kicked aside everything but an anvil, and came near killing himself against that, and finally was brought back to his stable unshod. This was his only defect; in all other points he was gentle and perfectly docile, and especially in harness. But this defect was just on the eve of consigning him to the plough, where he might work barefoot, when, by mere accident, an officer in our service, lately returned from Mexico, was passing, and, being made acquainted with the difficulty, applied a complete remedy by the following simple process : —He took a cord, about the size of a common bedcord, put it in the mouth of the horse like a bit, and tied it tightly on the animal’s head, passing his left ear under the string, not painfully tight, but tight enough to keep the ear down, and the cord in its place. This done he patted the horse gently on the side of the head, and commanded him? to follow ; and instantly the horse obeyed, perfectly subdued, and as gentle and obedient as a well-trained dog ; suffering his feet to be lifted with entire impunity, acting in all respects like an old stager. That sitaple string thus tied made him at once docile and obedient as any one could desire. The gentleman who thus furnished this exceedingly simple means of subduing a very dangerous propensity intimated that it is practised in Mexico and South America in the management of wild horses. Be this as it may, be deserves the thanks of all ownersof such horses, and especially the thanks of those whose business it may be to shoe or groom the animal.”