Kindness to Animals | Page 5

fine English horse, and to ride out, and see if
she were not easily managed. We had a long ride over mountains, and
through little streams, and crossing deep torrents by the unsteady
bridges made of trunks of trees, and he said he never saw an animal so
full of spirit and good-temper as my mare. I never touched her with the
whip, but spoke gently to her; and I can truly say, that for the year and
a half of my riding her every day, she never brought me into danger,
nor ever disobeyed me. You may say, "But this was a particular sort of
horse, not like others." I have only to answer you, that the bad, vicious
horse I spoke of before, was bred in the same place, lived in the same
stable, and the only difference between them was the different usage
that they had received.
The horse is one of the most sensible and most affectionate of creatures.
You see, every day, how they will obey the man who drives them,

going on, stopping, moving to the right or left, and turning any corner,
all without the driver going near them. They have learned the meaning
of his words, or they could not do this; and is it not dreadful that a
creature able to understand, and most willing to obey the voice, should
be beaten and tortured as horses are? Why does a horse go as fast as he
can when he is cruelly whipped, and his poor mouth wounded by the
hard bit? Because he is trying to get away from the man or boy who
treats him so. Ah, when God brought his beautiful creatures to the first
man, to be named, and gave them into his care, there was no
appearance of man ever becoming so cruel, or the animals so miserable
as they now are! Yet the Lord loves mercy and judgment, and hates
tyranny and wrong, as much now as he did then: and we may be quite
certain of this, that every cruelty committed is an offence in his sight,
and will be terribly punished, if it be not repented of, and left off; for
when a person says he repents, and goes on doing the same thing as
before, he is deceiving himself and provoking God.
The horse must bear a great deal of dreadful pain and suffering to be
made fit for the use man puts him to, in drawing carriages, and other
things. It is not natural to him to have even a bridle and saddle on him;
much less to be loaded with harness, to wear blinders on his eyes, and
to drag a great heavy weight as fast as he can run, keeping always
attentive to the least touch of the reins, and turning accordingly, to
prevent running his carriage against others. His fine spirit must be
broken, his liberty quite taken away, and many a bitter smart must the
poor, dumb, harmless, helpless creature suffer. But surely this ought to
be enough; and you would not be the cruel wretch to add to his pains?
Sometimes people must go fast; but one who would distress and
torment a horse to make him go fast, just because it pleases the driver
to be moving quickly, is doing a very wrong thing; and so is the person
who could neglect to give food and drink to a horse when he wants it. I
wonder when I see the poor doing this. They know what it is to be
overworked, and to want as much as they could eat; they are often cold,
and cannot get fuel enough: and if they were tied up, and not able to
run about, or to help themselves, having no servants to wait on them,
how very badly off they would think themselves! Yet a poor horse is
much worse off; he can neither do any thing for himself, nor express

his wants to others: he does his best, serves us faithfully, obeys all that
he understands; and then to be ill-used, neglected, starved! It is a thing
that I cannot bear to think of; and I hope my readers will always set
their faces against such wickedness. Remember that promise which the
Lord has given, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
I dare say you have heard of the Arabs--a wild people, the descendants
of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, who possess a great deal of country in
the east; and are powerful, and much feared, because nobody has been
able to conquer them. Their greatest strength consists in having the
boldest, fleetest, most docile horses in the whole world. Arabian horses
may be known in a moment by their uncommon beauty, their delicate
arched necks, waving