The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1904-04-07
THE sHYING r
4 Vice That Generally Originates from
Fear of Certain Siahts.

rear 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
oy carefully acquainting the horses
vita the objects that they fear.
writes David Buffum in the Youths
Companion. But there are two classes
Of horses that shy for no apparent
reason, and unusual means must be
taken to effect their cure.
In the first class are those which,
having once obtained some ADVANTAGE
over the driver by shying, repeat the
performance from pure mischief. It
requires some experience to distin-
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 dam
gerous shyers. l rsfer to those horses
which have been accustomed to the
objects they once feared, so that they
VIII usually pass them quietly, and
yet will sometimes suddenly evince
the original fear, and perhaps do con-
siderable damage in their struggles
TO get away.
That tne fear is real is evident to
any experienced norselnan. but why
the 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 were nervous. |
10 not mean necessarily high-strung
or high-spirited. although the vice is
more frequent in well-bred horses taan
in those of colder blood.
After his outbursts of terror the
nervous shyer usually Juiets down
promptly to his normal self. Such
horses know tne 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, and which aas cast
out more devils than any other known
agency in the world.
do not mean overwCrk. But I have
not known a shyer that could
not be controlled by giving him all
the work that ne 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 l owned some years ago. She
was 6 years old when I 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 l soon had her entirely
accustomed to them, SO that she
would meet them quietly. But several
times. when l least expected it, oil
her former fear suddenly returned,
and on n of these occasions she
broke the wagon and came so near
to getting away from me that I de-
cided upon the treatment l have in
dicated-plenty of work.
1t was 20 miles from where I lived
to the city, and l began to drive there
with Alice harnessed to a light road
wagon, instead of taking the train,
as had been my won't. This, with the
return trip, made 40 miles q day,
which Alice easily accomplished in
two hours and a 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 shying
and nervous excitement in the stable.
When / believed the cure complete.
l 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 not to punish the horse or to
tire him out or to break his spirit,
but simply to benefit his nervous sys-
tenn and to get it into a good, healthy
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