The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1904-05-21
THE SHYlNG HORSE.
A Vice That Generally Originates from
Fear of Certain Sights.


The dangerous vice of shying in
horses almost invariably originates
with genuine fear of certain sights or
sounds, and it can be cured usually
by carefully acquainting the horses
WITH the objects that they fear
writes David Buffum in the Youths
Companion. But there are two classes
IF horses that. shy for no apparent
"eason, and unusual means must be
.aken to effect their cure.
In the first class are those which,
having once obtained some advantage
over the driver by snying, repeat the
performance from pure mischief. 1t
requires some experience to dlstin-
guish this affected fear from the real;
but when there is no doubt Of his
making believe" coercive measures
! are necessary.
In the other class are the most dan
| ,erous shyers | refer to those horses
which have been accustomed to the
objects they once feared, 50 that they
will usually pass them quietly. and
vet will sometimes suddenly eyince
/ he original fear. and perhaps do con-
siderable damage In their struggles
| 10 get away.
/ That the fear is real IS evident to
any experienced nOrSclnan, but why
/ he horse should sometimes fear what
! he usually ignores is not SO clear
The vice is particularly dangerous be-
cause the driver never knows when
| to expect its manifestation.
/ | have invariably found that the
/ horses with this vice we're nervous
10 not mean necessarily hishstrung
Or high-spirited, although the vice is
more frequent in wel!-brcd horses taan
in those of colder blood.
After his outbursts Of terror the
nervous shyer usually quiets down
promptly to his normal self. Such
horses know tlc unreasOnableneSS
Of their conduct They simply lose
| their self-control.
The cure for nervous shyers Is
good. generous feed. accompanied By
daily, unremitting work-the medi-
cine which time and again. has taken
the nonsense out Of men and women
as we'll as horses. ana which nas cast
/ out more devils than any other known
agency in the world.
do not mean overWOrk. But have
not known a nervous shyer tlat could
not be controlled by giving him all
the work that he could perform with
/ out injury to his health. And the
cure is permanent.
A most interesting case was fur
nished by a young mare. called Alice,
that | owned some years ago. she
was years old when | bought her,
and very well bred although not
| Thoroughbred She was a fine. high
! spirited roadster. and ordinarily was
well behaved, but she was subject to
unaccOuntable fits of nervousness.
| Sometimes. when standing in her own
box stall. she would get uneasy. and
move and paw and scrape till sweat
ran off her in streams
The mare was at first desperately
afraid of electric cars; but with care
and patience | soon had her entirely
| accustomed to them, so that she
would meet them quietly. But several
times. when | least expected it, all
her former fear suddenly returned,
and on one of these occasions she
broke the wagon and came SO near
to getting away from me t2at ! de-
cided upon the treatment | have in
dicated-plenty of work.
1t was 90 miles from where / lived
to the city, and began to drive there
with Alice harnesscd to a light road
wagon, instead of taking the train
as had been my wont. This. with the
return trip. made 40 miles a day,
which Alice easily accomplished in
two hours and half each way.
| l made this trip with her three
times a week, on the average. mean
while feeding her generously, so that
she did not fall away in flesh or con-
dition.
The result was a complete and per
manent cure of her nervous shyInS
and nervous excitement in the stable.
When | believed the cure complete,
| stopped driving her TO the city, ana
used her as formerly, without recur-
renee of her trouble. In prescribing
this treatment for nervous shyers, |
cannot urge too strongly that the OBJ
ject is net to punish the horse or to
tire him out or to break his spirit,
but simply to benefit his nervous sys-
TEN ard to get it into good, healthy
and normal condition.