OPERATIONS.
As all painful operations can now be performed under the influence of chloroform, the least compensation an owner can make to his poor beast for the tortures he is put to, in order to enhance his value and usefulness to his master, is to lay an injunction on the professional attendant to make use of this merciful provision, in cases where severe pain must otherwise be inflicted on the animal.
Rarey’s method of casting for operations, or when a horse is so extremely unruly as to require to be thrown down, may be thus quoted from his own directions:—
“Everything that we want to teach a horse must be commenced in some way to give him an idea of what you want him to do, and then be repeated till he learns perfectly.
“To make a horse lie down, bend his left fore-leg and slip a loop over it, so that he cannot get it down. Then put a surcingle round his body, and fasten one end of a long strap around the other fore-leg, just above the hoof. Place the other end under the surcingle so as to keep the strap in the right direction; take a short hold of it with your right hand; stand on the left side of the horse; grasp the bit in your left hand; pull steadily on the strap with your right; bear against his shoulder till you cause him to move. As soon as he lifts his weight, your pulling will raise the other foot, and he will have to come on his knees.
“Keep the strap tight in your hand, so that he cannot straighten his leg if he rises up. Hold him in this position, and turn his head towards you; bear against his side with your shoulder, not hard, but with a steady equal pressure, and in about ten minutes he will be down. As soon as he lies down he will be completely conquered, and you can handle him at your pleasure.
“Take off the straps and straighten out his legs; rub him lightly about the face and neck with your hand the way the hair lies; handle all his legs, and after he has lain ten or twenty minutes let him get up again. After resting him a short time make him lie down and get up as before. Repeat the operation three or four times, which will be sufficient for one lesson.
“Give him two lessons a-day: and when you have given him four lessons he will lie down by taking hold of one foot. As soon as he is well broken to lie down in this way, tap him on the opposite leg with a stick when you take hold of his foot, and in a few days he will lie down from the mere motion of the stick.”
For the purpose of handling horses more easily without casting them, when slight operations have to be performed, a twitch is used, made by 7 or 8 inches of cord formed into a noose, which is attached to about 2 feet of a strong stick. The noose is placed on the upper lip of the horse, and by turning the stick round and round, it is tightened. The pain thus occasioned to the animal subdues him to bear almost anything, and he can thus be subjected to minor operations while standing, but it is also as well to place a cloth over his eyes to prevent his being too well informed of what is going on,—a precaution which may be used with advantage under various other circumstances, such as measuring the height, when the sight of the size-measure as placed against his shoulder might alarm him;—in fact, upon any occasion when it maybe desirable that a horse should not be aware of what is passing around him; for instance, if he is unwilling to go on board ship or into a horse-van.