“'Yes, I think everything of him.'
“'Then why do you torture him?'
“'Torture my Prince?'
“'Yes, that is just what you are doing. Do you know that the poor animal suffers agony because his head is checked so unnaturally high? His neck is drawn out straight, producing a most ungraceful angle, he holds his head awkwardly, the bit is hurting his mouth, and that graceful curvature of neck and carriage of head which are in his nature are now entirely lost. Why do you check him so high?'
“She didn't know. She was not aware that high checking was a source of pain to horses, nor that it destroyed their natural beauty. She was amazed at the discovery.
“'May I trouble you to unloosen his check?' she asked.
“When the strap was unsnapped, the horse immediately lowered his head, straightened the cramps out of his handsome neck, shook himself to make sure that he had actually been released from bondage, and they looked around with such a grateful, delighted expression in his intelligent eyes that his mistress declared no more checking straps should be used upon him.”
Cobweb and Major had both been broken to harness, as well as to the saddle, and some days after the conversation recorded in this chapter, Charley tried Cobweb in a dog-cart which his father had given him. Check-reins and blinders formed no part of the pretty creature's harness, and he seemed to appreciate his freedom from those abominations of modern custom. Major was tried in the afternoon of the same day, and his performance fully justified the faith that the boys had in the reformed system of driving. Not only did George and Charley declare that they would never use blinders or check-reins on their horses, but they chorussed the evils of the old practice to their young friends, several of whom were induced to follow their example. And of all those who did so, not one returned to the cruelties he had so unthinkingly practiced, simply because it was the fashion.
