The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-02-04
WHAT IS A
HORSE.

"" OSohAbOAJ N44u4CS TOulblOA ia
1873, page 689-is believed to be
sound law, the world over, on the
above subject:
1t was written by Mr.. Angel, edi-
tor of Our Dumb animals, in review
ing a decision of a Massachusetts,
court in 1868, that there was no cruel,
ty because other horses of the same
weight were able to draw the load in
question. It was the first and last de-
cision of the kind ever rendered in
Massachusetts.
"Must an animal be worked until
he breaks a blood vessel or drops
dead, before the law takes c~ognizance2
Is the horse to be strained, or worked
to the extreme limit Of his strength,
before such straining or working be-
comes a cruelty (that is, before the
act of his master becomes overload
ing ?) Can an expert, or any num-
Der of experts, say what is the limit
of strength or endurance of any horse,
simply by knowing his weight? 1t
seems to me that these questions can
be easily answered. Horses, like men,
are of different ages, constitutions,
temperments, formation and degrees
of strength. One horse, just like one
man, may be twice as fast, twice as
tough, twice as strong, as another of
precisely the same weight; and mas
much as horses, like men, are liable to
great varieties of sicknesses, and SUI
fer just like men, from previous over
working and from heat, want of
proper rest, food, water, shelter and
care, it follows that the same horse,
like the same man, may be able to per-
form without injury more labor in one
day than another.
"Can a thousand experts prove that
all men of a given weight or size r
equally competent, on every day of
the year, to perform a given labor?
Can their testimony establish how
much load a man of given weight
should carry, and how far he should
carry it on a given day, without re-
gard to whether the man is old or
young, sick or well, strong or weak,
tough or tender, already tired or
rested, fulfilled or starved, or the
day hot or cold? And does not pre-
cisely the same eason apply to the
horse-that what one horse can do
one day has no force in howing what
another ought to do on another day
unless you show the weather, age,
strength, toughuess and bodily condi-
ton of the two to be precisely similar.
I say, then, that it is just as impossi-
BILE for any number of experts, know.
ing only the weight or size of a horse
and nothing of his age, health,
strength, toughness and bodily condi.
ton, to establish what is, or is not
overlooking him, as it would be know
ing only the size or weight of a man
and nothing of his age, health,
strength, toughness or bodily condi-
ton, to establish what is, or is not an
overload for him.
"How then, are we to determine
when a horse is overloaded? Just
exactly and precisely as we determine
when a man is overloaded. First, we
are to take his own evidence. If a
man stops and says, Il am overloaded,
1 am working too hard, I feel that the
task put upon me is too heavy that
is evidence. So when the horse, ordi.
narily kind and willing to pull, comes
with a heavy load to a rise of land
and, after one or two efforts, stops
and says, as plainly as he can speak
it, Il am overloaded, [ am working
too hard, [ feel that the task put upon
me is too heavy that is evidence, and
there is no court or jury, or man with
the heart of a man, who will not rec
ognize it as such. Besides, the signs
of overwork are just as visible in the
horse as in the man. No magistrate
or juror would have any difficulty in
deciding in his own mind whether a
case to which his attention might be
attracted in our public streets was or
was not a cas- of cruelty.
"It is not, then, the testimony OF
competent, intelligent and credible by.
ISLANDERS, who see how the horse looks
and acts, and his bodily condition,
health, and capability to perform the
labor required, but the best evidence
that can possibly be obtained? Where
can you better? And when disinter
ested and intelligent witnesses, who
are present and see and hear all thai
is said and done in a given case
voluntarily leave their ordinary avoca
tions and come into court to testify
that they are fully satisfied that the
case is a clear case of cruelty, car
such evidence be overbalanced by tina
of any number of experts who are no
present, see nothing that occurs, know
nothing of the age, health, strength
or bodily condition of the horse at th'
time, and who base their calculation
simply upon the avoirdupois weigh