146 MODERN FARRIEIl. 



76. Cleanliness, 



No damp or wet litter should on any account be 

 permitted to lie in the stable. Cleanliness is essen- 

 tial to health. The stalls should therefore be care- 

 fully cleaned out every morning, and the moist 

 litter removed to a distance from the stable. The 

 sharpness of the volatile salts, arising from the urine 

 which is absorbed by the straw, is extremely hurtful 

 to the eyes of the horse; while damp litter softens 

 the hoof, swells the legs, and produces many other 

 inconveniences. 



77. Food. 



' 



When the horse ranges at liberty in the fields, he 

 chooses his food and seldom errs; but when shut 

 up in a stable, he is exposed to great danger, both 

 from the quantity and the quality of the food given 

 to him. In this state he has to wait the convenience 

 of the keeper ; and being sometimes obliged to fast 

 long, the horse eats so voraciously as to overload his 

 stomach and occasion great danger. 



Mr. Clark, of Edinburgh, mentions two instances i 

 of horses having died from excessive eating. 'A ] 

 young draught-horse was fed in the morning with ' 

 too great a quantity of barley mixed with pease, ' 

 and had been allowed to drink water immediately ; 

 after. After having travelled a few miles, he was | 

 observed about the middle of the day, to be very ' 

 uneasy, frequently attempting to lie down. As I 

 soon as he was vin harnessed, he laid down, and rolled .: 

 about, frequently lying on his back, starting up \ 

 suddenly, and turning his head towards his belly. : 

 He continued in this manner, in great agony, till ^ 

 towards the next morning, when he died. Upon \ 

 opening his body, the stomach was found burst, the j 

 barley and pease mostly entire, only greatly swelled, j 





