p. 249 | TRY IT YOURSELF

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 16.

TRY IT YOURSELF.

OVER five hundred veterinary surgeons have signed a paper condemning tight check-reins as painful to horses and productive of disease, causing distortion of the windpipe to such a degree as to impede respiration. They mention paralysis of the muscles of the face, megrims, apoplexy, coma, and inflammation, as some of the results of its use. The over-checkrein will often cause a horse to become knee-sprung. It destroys the delicate sensitiveness to the bit which is most desirable in guiding a horse.

Dr. Kitching says: "If a horse pulling a load has his head held in by a checkrein, he cannot throw his weight into his collar, and is hindered from giving his body that position which is most natural and effective."

He goes on to speak of the consequent strain of his limbs and muscles, and the injury caused by the constrained position of the head, whereby the breathing and circulation are affected, and the horse made restless, irritable, and uncomfortable. He says: "The check-rein inflicts unceasing torture upon the animal in another way. By holding the head upwards, it puts the muscles of the neck on a constant strain. They become painfully uneasy and tired. If the horse cannot bear it, he rests the weight of his head upon the rein, and his mouth is violently stretched. Thus he only exchanges one torment for another. To sum in a word, the checkrein lessens a horse's strength, brings on disease, keeps him in pain, frets and injures his mouth, and spoils his temper."—Selected.