A visitor from Australia who was recently asked, while walking in Bond Street, what had struck her most in London, promptly replied: “The absurd way in which you tie up your horses’ heads.” It may seem strange at first sight that the English, who pride themselves especially on their love of horses, and who certainly breed some of the finest horses in the world, should be the people who invented, and are mainly responsible for the use of that instrument of torment, the bearing-rein.
It may, however, only be another instance of the well-known observation that every virtue has a corresponding vice which lies very near to it. The impulse, which is innocent in itself, and in a well-balanced mind may lead to right action, in the meaner mind will result only in self-indulgence and injustice to others. The ambition to have a fine horse is an innocent one enough, and the real horse-lover rejoices in his steed’s high step and arching neck. The parvenu sees this, and if his horse is not quite up to the mark in breeding, and does not make his steps properly and arch his neck proudly, his owner, whose sense of the fitness of things is limited, says: “We must make him do so, whether he likes it or not”; and so the poor victim has to endure a life of torment to gratify the stupidity of the fashionable snob.
The question of the bearing-rein is one which it is difficult to discuss, as there are no pros, but only cons. The agitation against the use of the rein began some forty years ago, and, though certainly some progress has been made since then and the rein has so far fallen in disrepute that one of our well-known country papers, “Farm and Home,” is able to write, “The view that it is needed has long been abandoned by practical horsemen,” there is still a great deal to be done before it is entirely abolished in England.
That the English fashion has unfortunately been adopted in other countries is evidenced by the fact that societies in Germany, Italy, and Holland have applied to the English Association for its literature and pictures. In America a specially atrocious development has been made in the form of the check-rein, used originally in trotting matches, by which the horse’s head is held up in the air by a strap passing over the top of the head. It repeats all the disadvantages of the English bearing-rein, but is even more cruel, holding the horse’s head in a perfectly inmovable position. It has found some imitators in England, but fortunately not many as yet.
VETERINARY OPINION.
On one occasion the R.S.P.C.A. collected the names of some 600 Fellows and Members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons who were all opposed to the use of the rein. The list, still in print, is headed by Professor Pritchard and Professor Axe, of the London College; Professor Walley, of Edinburgh; Professor McCally and Professor McGill, of Glasgow; and Professor Mayer, of Cirencester; and they appended their names to the declaration that they “are of opinion that the use of the bearing-rein, when tightly applied, is painful and irritating to horses, is directly and indirectly productive of disease when regularly worn, and by its mechanical action greatly hinders horses from employing their full strength. For the above reasons—on the plea of utility as well as of humanity—its use should be discontinued.”
Professor Pritchard, in expressing his opinion, said:—
“The fact that the bearing-rein is a useless appendage, supported only by fashion, but producing painful sensations in the muscles of the head and neck, stamps its application as a most cruel act.”
And Professor Wortley Axe said:—
“Eleven years’ experience in the post-mortem house and the dissecting-room of our college has made me acquainted with a variety of structural alterations and deformities arising from this cause, which must have rendered life a burden and shortened its span.”
Mr. Fleming, Army Veterinary Inspector, gave the following twelve reasons against the bearing-rein:—
1. It spoils the appearance of the horse, and largely detracts from his free and graceful movements.
2. The long-continued pressure on the lower jaw tends to give the animal a hard mouth, and therefore to render it less obedient to the driver’s rein.
3. It does not prevent stumbling, but, on the contrary, predisposes the horse to fall, and with much more severity than if it were not used.
4. In hot weather or during extreme exertion it may directly or indirectly produce an attack of giddiness or apoplexy—the last probably terminating in death.
5. In heavy draught, in addition to the torture it occasions, it causes a large portion of the horse’s power to be lost, from the animal being unable to get his head and neck down, and thus to throw more of the weight of his body into the collar.
6. The powerful muscles which pull forward the shoulders, and indirectly the fore limbs, and which are attached to the head and neck, are by it placed in the least favourable position for exercising their function; so that the horse’s action, as well as its speed and strength, are impaired from this mechanical disadvantage.
7. It causes pain and distress in breathing.
8. It tends to produce distortion of the upper part of the windpipe, which causes difficulty in respiration, as well as the disagreeable wheezing, snoring, or whistling sound termed “roaring,” and which constitutes an unsoundness.
9. It frets the temper of nervous and excitable horses, and shortens the lives of all.
10. It wearies the head and neck of the horse by the constrained, unnatural position in which they are fixed.
11. It adds to the weight of the harness, and the time required to clean it.
12. It is an unnecessary expense to purchase it.
These twelve reasons have not been seriously controverted by anyone with authority to speak on the subject, but as they cannot be said to have received general practical acceptance by the public, we may treat the chief of them a little more in detail.
The bearing-rein lessens a horse’s power of work. Anyone who watches a horse with a free head pulling a load will see that his neck and back are pretty well in line, while if the load be very heavy, or he is going uphill, the head will be even lower. By taking this position he brings his weight against the collar, and a good deal of the work is done by his weight alone—of course, to the saving of his muscles. When his head is kept up by the hame-rein he cannot throw his weight into the collar, and must move his load by power of his muscles alone. If you watch a horse thus hindered you cannot doubt that it puts a strain on his back and legs, and must be specially injurious in those cases of weak hock joints shown by the hind foot half-turned at every step. It is some thing like a man rowing. He throws himself back at each stroke and moves the oar largely by his weight. If he could not do so it would mean a greatly increased strain on his muscles to drag the oars through the water. A man pulling a load acts as a horse would naturally do, and throws himself forward against it. Fortunately for him, no one puts on a hame-rein to keep him upright.
It does not prevent stumbling, as some suppose; but, on the contrary, is apt to cause the horse to stumble, and also to fall, for with this rein on he cannot recover himself. He naturally puts his head down to recover his balance, but the rain prevents him. Also, a horse wearing it falls more severely than one who has his head free, and it further prevents his rising again.
The rein has a bad effect on the horse’s breathing, especially when tight. Owing to the unnatural position in which the head and neck are kept, the upper part of the windpipe sometimes gets forced out of position, and “broken wind” is the result. Even where the harm has not gone so far as to cause lasting displacement, the temporary displacing of the cartilages and consequent narrowing of the breathing passage while wearing the rein cause much distress to the animal.
The use of this rein tends to destroy the elasticity of the ligament at the back of the neck, which naturally supports the head.
The constant chafing of the bit, even with a so-called “slack” rein, is apt to make the mouth hot and inflamed, and the undue flow of saliva, consequent on this state, is seen as “foam.” If the rein be tight it causes warty growths, cracks, and painful sores in the mouth, which, in addition to being a source of suffering to the horse, tend to make him unable to answer to the guidance of the driving reins.
It prevents the horse resting when he is standing. Cart and farm horses often spend many hours in harness, and a good deal of that time they are standing about. If their heads are free they can rest, and so come fresh to their work again; but to rest a horse puts down its head. The hame-rein keeps him restless and irritated, and so standing tires instead of resting him. Tormented and worried, he wears out faster than he need.
FUNERAL HORSES.
The opinion of experts with regard to funeral horses, who, being stallions, many persons have considered could not be managed without the use of the bearing-rein, has been tested by a letter addressed by the Anti-Bearing-Rein Association to all the chief funeral furnishers in London.
A good many replies were received expressing approval of the aim of the Association, from which the following important testimony may be quoted:—
Messrs. Gillow and Company write: “We use no bearing-reins on our horses.”
Messrs. Shoolbred and Company write: “We do not use the bearing-rein except on rare occasions, and then only with Professor Pritchard’s approval.”
Messrs. Whiteley, Limited, write: “The bearing-rein is not used on any of our horses.”
The Secretary of the Necropolis Company writes: “I am quite in accord with the object of your Association, and will certainly do my utmost in the matter.”
If these large and well-known firms can drive their horses safely either without bearing-reins at all or with them quite slack, why cannot all others do the same? It seems quite obvious that the need of the bearing-rein—except in a few rare cases—is simply a superstition.
With regard to the few rare cases which are a stumbling-block to some people who otherwise would give the movement their support, it may readily be admitted that with some horses, who have acquired the habit of boring, picking up refuse from the road, etc., an extra rein may be desirable to keep them in check. But such a rein has nothing in common with the bearing-rein as it is usually understood, and there is no need whatever for it to be tight enough’ to exercise any restraint on the movements of the horse, except when he may wish to indulge in his inconvenient propensity. To defend the tight bearing or hame-rein on the ground of these exceptional cases is equivalent to defending the general use of the tight corset because here and there a patient suffering from spinal curvature may be better for some artificial support.
The excuses given—for they cannot be called reasons—for the use of the bearing-rein are sometimes of a comic order. It has, for instance, been said by a veterinary surgeon in one of the provincial towns that the horses, when relieved of the rein, took to falling down on starting. The horses, however, in other towns and countries, notably in Scotland, where the rein is practically unknown, are quite able to start without any difficulty. Another objector, this time the clerk of one of the London councils, gave as a reason for using the hame-rein that “the horses fall asleep if they stand in the sun, and their heads must therefore be kept up,” while a third found that it was “desirable to have the rein because of the nosebags, which otherwise would always be slipping off.” Here again we should like to ask how the horses in other places manage to keep awake and retain their nosebags. Yet another complains that without the rein his horses were far too energetic and would, as he expressed it, “pull their hearts out rather strong testimony, we think, to the waste of power which the rein, when used, is apt to cause.
But the commonest excuse, that the rein prevents the horse from stumbling, is a very generally accepted idea amongst ignorant people. It would seem quite reasonable that the rein attached to something above the horse’s head might have this effect, but to argue that one fastened to the harness on the animal’s own back could save him from falling is just as reasonable, or unreasonable, as to maintain that a Chinaman’s pigtail, fastened to his girdle at the back, would prevent his tripping over a stone or slipping on a piece of orange peel.
The methods adopted by the Association to combat this evil consist mainly in the circulation of literature to instruct public opinion and in the display of coloured posters on hoardings and by boardmen. Another method which has been found efficacious is the erection of boards, of which there are now upwards of 100, at the foot of steep hills, requesting drivers to slacken the rein when going uphill. Personal letters also to the County, Borough, and Urban Councils have resulted in over eighty of them having discarded the rein. The large railway companies, tramcar companies, cab and fly companies, H.M. Mails and Parcel Post, all the large brewers, and many of the most important trading firms have also given up the use of the rein entirely on their vans as well as carts, and at the Van Horse Parade held annually in London the use of the rein disqualifies a competitor. These practical object lessons, in addition to the fact to the ever-increasing number of equipages seen in our West End streets without the rein, furnish the best answer to those who from various personal reasons still cling to the old fetish, and think something dreadful will happen to them if they renounce it, as more discerning and humane people have now done, with very much advantage to their horses.
Ernest Bell
The Animals’ Cause, Vol. 1, 1909, pp. 236-240