The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-05-28
evening Stats 5narnat.
TUESDAY, EVENING, MAY 2s- 1872.
OF with the Check-Reins-To Horse Owners,
Drivers and Teamsters


If man has heavy load to push OF
draw, he lowers his head by bending for.
ward, and throws the weight of his body
against, or to propel the load, 80 does the
OK or horse. under similar circumstances,
if permitted.
If the mans head were tied to belt
around his body so that he could not bend
forward, he would lose the advantage of
his weight, and could only pull or push
with his muscles,-so also with the OK or
horse.
If the mans head were thus kept in a
perpendicular position, he could not so
readily see where to step, and would be
more apt to stumble,-so also with the ex
or horse. 49, 81
No one in the saddle would thus tie I'D
the head of his horse, and no one would
expect horse thus tied up to win race.
Nor would any one think it an advantage
toput check-reins on oxen.
The London Horse Book says:
"The horse is often prevented from
throwing his weight into the collar by
FIGHT CHECK-REIN-a useless and pain
full incumbrance, introduced by vanity, and
retained by thoughtlessness amounting to
cruelty. Fe,c of the London cab-d,1ces
,ss check-rei,s, knowing them to be incon-
sistent with proper work and, when one
is observed, it will invariably be found to
be on some poor animal, whose wearied
and haggered appearance is attempted to
be disguised by tins implement of torture.
The chech-rein as, IN nearly evey, case,
painful to the animal, and useless to the
drcer. Because it fastens the head in an
unnatural posture and as the horses
shoulder and head fall together, cannot be
of any real support in case of stumbling.
When, from some defect in the animal or |
other cause, the check-rein is used, it must
be slackened. Because in addition to the |
easier position of the neck, greater portion |
Of weight can be thrown into the collar,
especially going up hill, thus saving a great
and unnecessary expenditure of muscular
power.
There is an important difference between
ahgM check-rem and tightened rein, al
though not generally understood. The
first is injurious, and cannot help the
horse, while the latter is often useful.
Because the latter is steady support to
the animals head, from distinct and in
telllgent source-the driver; whereas the
former is only the horses head fastened to
his own shoulders. That The check-rein is
Inconsistent Nth The action of tie horse's
head, IS clearly sho,on By the fact that
whsn horse falls IL is alioays broken"
From the letters of an American gentle
man travelling in Europe in 1869 and 1870,
and which have been widely read in this
country, take the following, giving the
places of date
BELFAST, Ireland.--"I haze not seen a
check-reua on a draft horse IN Ireland.
GLASGOW, Scotland.-As | wrote YOU
about Ireland, so in Glasgow. Ihare not
seen a check-re,a on q draft horse, nor on a |
horse used an any omnibus, hack, or other
public conveyance, and very few-a,,d none
hgh-on other horses. ~
talked the other day with the keeper of
one of the largest livery stables in the city. !
lie had over hundred horses in his sta 1
BILE, and he told me that he had never
used check-rein on one of them. talked
with an old Scotch stage-driver, and he !
said: we dinna use them. You Wilma !
get half their power with them crimped up
,o." f
LoNDoN.-"F e,o .check-rei,,s on cab and
bus horses here"
NAPLES" Check-aeias are not used Y
here on cab HorsesO