Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-09-13
Treat Horses Decentiy.

Horses live out their lives wholly unde
the control of man. Willingly, cheer
fully for the most part, they do man
bidding and never know their nativ
| freedom from birth to death. Many al
intelligent horse does his part in lif
much better than the man who calls him
self his master.
think sometimes man commits great
er sin in ill-treating or neglecting thil
prince of brutes than in ill-treating o.
neglecting members of the human fam
lily. The human being has speech, ha
the right aud power to seek redress, L
strike back and defend himself, or to re
move himself altogether from the pres
ence of his tormentors. None of these
things has the faithful horse. He mus
endure in silence. II he strikes back
he is called vicious" and is punished
Kindness means much to an intelligent
horse. There are those so dull that al
oath makes no difference to them; but
to the high bred horse an oath or harsh
word means about what it does to per
son. The nerves will tighten, the pulse
quicken, the sensitive nostril dilate and
quiver. Kind words and hand pats quiet
the nerves, soften the expression of the
eye; the whole appearance OF the animal
changes 1t is not better to sOothe with
kindness than to irritate and torment?
Many horses are ruined when young
BY the harsh treatment of their care
takers. They have no confidence in
man. IL takes years of kind treatment
to overcome the mischief wrought in a
few weeks or months of early life.
have seen grooms in cleaning stalls
rap the horses heels smartly with hoe
or shovel and yell "Stand overr' when
they had not tried in any other way to
make them 90 so. The horse jumped
and quivered, snorted, laid back its ear,
and kept stepping as long as the man
was at work. The horse had a better
disposition than had, for | felt like see
ing the horses feet landed hard on some
part of that grown body.
l have seen them go in beside the
horse without speaking, kick its legs,
slap its sides, strike it over the head
with a pitchfork or the feed measure,
with harsh words aud oaths, all because
the horse did not stand over before 1t
knew what was wanted of it.
have seen horses kicked in the belly
for slipping on the wet barn bridge
load into the barn. | beiieve
that many cases called collie, aud that
do not not respond to treatment, are in
caused by kicks.
Is man endowed by his creator with
heart and brain and sense? 1t is hard
for me to believe it when | see such
things as the above. He looks to me
like the bigger brute of the two.
l once saw man halter-break wean-
ling of six months or so. He got halter
on it's head. The colt pulled and he
pulled aud yaDked and swore. The colt
pulled itself down and he snaked II
along on the ground until his strength
gave out, then got behind it with stick
and beat and kicked it until iJ got up.
The colt jumped the length of the halter;
he pulled it around facing him and went
the same operation again and
again, swearing in loud tones all the
time. That colt was Morgan filly, and
she had spunk. She fought for her
liberty and she always did it. She is
twenty years old, and has never been
safe to leave hitched with a halter.
Otherwise she is kind. Who was to
blame? Not the filly, | am sure.
A horse stumbles on the road. He
gets cut with the whip when his shoes
need seeing to. He fails for the same
reason and gets beating. He is driven
miles and left standing, perhaps in the
wind, with no blanket, while his owner
swaps stories with man. He gets
lame, and the man says he is ''no good. J"
It's the man that is no good. He comes
in tired aud hot from hard work and is
fed heavily on corn meal, is put back to
work in an hour, has collie and dies.
The owner bemoans his hard luck. No
luck about it, just lack OF common
sense and human kindness.
Harnesses do not fit; sore shoulder
results; yet the poor animal is worked
lust the same with the harness rubbing
ON those raw sores. The horse, II a
young one, refuses to pull, is beaten,
harness broken perhaps in the scutfie,
horse made balky for life by the in
of it's driver. l have wished
that every blow that falls
ON the auiveriug flesh OF a balky horse
could fail on the man who made him 80,
for balky horses are made, not born,
and half the time spent in trying to beat
it out of them spent in the beginning in
developing the colts docility instead Of
bis stubbornness, would have made
good horse of him. Use common sense
and be kiud.-H. Leigh Hunt in Country
Gentleman.