HERD TESTERS AND HORSES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6136, 14 September 1945, Page 5

HERD TESTERS AND HORSES

Sir, —Our herd testers—many of them women—are taken through a course of instruction which enables

them to go into the milking sheds throughout the country and efficiently and capably test the herds, but while these people are being trained might it not be advisable for them to be given, at the same time, some idea of driving and tending the horses in their care? Not many people in our country are at heart cruel. That seems to be left for Nazis and Japs, but many unfortunately are thoughtless and lacking in knowledge of what constitutes cruelty to a horse. In one particular case a herd-tester in this district with a fine old trotter covers the country at a hard gallop not unlike the scenes witnessed at the “cowboys” and “Indians” film. The gig sways and swings, and even the. approach of a Steep hill matters little. Now, sir, I am sure the driver has no idea of the small amount of this treatment a horse can stand when it is being driven every day and sometimes many miles in the day. If lectures were given during training pointing out treatment which should be meted out to the willing beasts and also some tuition in harnessing so that the gigs would ride smoothly instead of copying the motion of a boat in a heavy sfa. It would help both herd-testers and their charges and remedy a state of affairs which saddens all lovers of horses.—l am, etc., W.T.P.