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A TRUE HORSE STORY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 26, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 21.

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The Wicked Overdraw Check.
The Wicked Overdraw Check.

A TRUE HORSE STORY.

On Madison Street one day I paused to pat the nose of a beautiful horse which stood by the curb, and commiserate his misfortune, for this beautiful animal, tho sleek of coat and shapely in body and limb, was apparently suffering most excruciating torture. His head had been checked inhumanely high, and the cruel bit, drawing tightly in his mouth, disfigured an animal face of unusual charm and intelligence. I was just fancying that the horse had begun to understand and appreciate my words of sympathy, when the lady who sat in the carriage holding the reins fumbled in her pocket, produced a lump of white sugar, and asked me to give it to the horse.
“He is very fond of sugar,” she explained, “and I have quite won his heart by feeding it to him. I always carry sugar in my pocket while out driving, and give him a lump at every opportunity. I never knew a horse to be so fond of sugar. Will you please give him another lump?”
“Certainly,” I replied; “I see that you are quite as fond of the horse as he is of sweets.”
“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 then looked round with such a grateful, delighted expression in his intelligent eyes that his mistress declared no more checking straps should be used upon him.—Chicago Herald.