The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-31

NduCS tndt WIn PCiihit fyOu tO hOAt your head in the most comfortable erect position, but will prevent it from swinging forward add the usual driv- ing lines and let yourself be harnessed to the buggy.
 Now when you hear the crack of the whip. or feel its gentle touch on your sk!n-a signal to you-trot ahead. Whether you are to go slow or fast, you can generally tell by the degree of preponderance between the activity of the whip and the pull of the bit in your mouth. For you soon will learn to distinguish between the pull of the check-rein and that of the driving lines. although the latter varies con- siderably with different drivers. some of whom consider 1t best to let the horse pull a part of the load with his mouth, an idiosyncrasy of drivers which it will be well for you quickly to recognize, so as to save them as far as possible, the fatigue of yielding the whip. You generally also can tell which direction. or which side of the road you are to take, Or what turn you are to make, by the more or less sud- den pull of the bit in the right or left side of your mouth, in critical sit- nations, and especially with nervous drivers a veritable see-saw sometimes.
 While you are in motion, a decided increase of the pull of the bit, or a more or less sudden jerk or q quick succession of jerks, generally means for you to stop; but if, while you are at halt, a sudden pull of the bit throws you back on your launches against the wagon or the buggy, &C., companied perhaps by cut with the whip to make you more lively, this generally means that you are to back. This maneuver is frequently so intri- cate and so full of abuse to the horse, that you must see 1t to fully realize both, and you will then certainly ad-
 mire the patience, the good will and the intelligence of the horse. or of the mule. its clairvoyant power, indeed, which 1t often displays in getting the driver out of a very bad predicament. All these signals and directions are of ten a little mixed, and even by a crea- ture of the proverbial horse sense, not always readily understood. when the driver his patience being sorely tried, not seldom essays to settle the point in quite an off f-hand manner, which should not leave the matter in doubt any longer, yet sometimes does. and leads to a scene, a runaway, a smash
 up, broken limbs of driver or horse, and worse.
 As you trot along you find you have to hold your head quite firm in its po- sition, not in that easy elastic way with which you started out, for at every step you trot, your head would swing forward and receive a sudden jerk from the check-rein. which makes your mouth very sensitive and painful, and the pull of the driving lines does not much relieve the pain, although 1t has been said. one pain while 1t lasts may give relief from another. Hold ing your head thus firmly fixed will soon bring on the cramp. and lucky you are, you are only playing horse, and can stop the experiment. and es- cape the torture which the real horse has to endure.
 When now even a loose check rein which permits you, or the horse, to hold the head in a natural position--at least on starting-may cause so much suffering, how much greater is the tor ture when a tighter check-rein com pels the horse not only to hold the head firm from the start. but higher than its natural position. See how the check-rein strap over his neck flaps and jerks at every step, except indeed If he is checked so tightly that even this unavoidable give and take can only take place in the still greater com pression of his lips. Yes, through pain and suffering his mouth in time gets somewhat harder, but this does not relieve the cramp in his neck and jaws; and in the degree his mouth gets harder, he is less easily guided by the drivers rein and therefore subject to harder jerks. to more rough treat
 ment, and frequently has to endure a more severe bit.
 When a horse, with his mouth at an
 unnatural elevation, while pulling a load. perhaps up hill, and being whip ped to greater speed, losses his head, foams at the mouth, hangs out ms tongue--or when he while standing still, opens and shuts his mouth, tries | to move his head from side to side, or to turn 1t back towards the body, l to lessen the strain of the check-rein. or when he tries to get up on the side
 walk. or on box or barrel, to follow
 and to lessen the upward pull of the check rein, does any one in his senses suppose that he does this for fun,
 that it is an expression of his happi-
 ness, of the joy of existence? Ster closer, look in his agonized eye and in- form yourself, and see also his grate- | full look and contentment if you un- check him.
 And all this cruelty cannot claim ne- | cessity as an excuse. nor even a req
 
 | horse has to endure--an animal so ca l pablo of human attachment as to have 1 been known to stand guard over his | master who was wounded or killed on the field of battle or somewhere else | to refuse to eat when separated from | him, or to express the greatest joy | when again meeting him-to be gener- l ally treated as an object incapable of | feeling, to suffer the continuous pull
 of the bit in his mouth, the never end
 ing fear of the whip, which callous | or stupid drivers keep ceaselessly | cracking, or even throwing over his | back, as if this was a pleasure to him; to be ofen driven in i'll fitting | harness, that presses on painful sores; | improperly shod, left without foo l and
 water, and which man can compute | the number of times horse may have | to endure burning thirst without being 1 given water to drink? Overloaded,
 overworked and barbarously whipped | left standing exposed to cold, to storm and rain, or to the burning rays of the sun. to flies and vermin: kept in dark | often solitary, and unhealthy stables | not seldom burned alive in them l docked, maimed in battle or in his l work crippled and suffering from
 rheumatism through cold or overwork and yet in this condition even in his | old age driven to work and to speed and kept in harness as long as he can
 stand up at all.
 Why add to all this, and innumera- 1 ble more suffering, the so unnecessary cruelty of the check-rein why make ] this earth an abode for the horse
 where "his torment never ceases?'