STUD BOOK. Ill 



his corn may be offered to him, which he will readily take; 

 but water should never be given immediately before or after 

 the corn. 



The preparatory work and treatment of hacks and car- 

 riage-horses scarcely varies, if the owner desires to have 

 them in first-rate order. The most extraordinary notions pre- 

 vail concerning the hardihood of horses, and the best means 

 of securing that valuable faculty. It is alleged that those 

 which are bred in the mountainous districts of Wales and 

 Scotland are highly gifted with this property. It is true they 

 bear exposure to great inclemency of weather, and live on 

 scanty food. Thus, reasoning by analogy, persons fancy that 

 by demi-starvation and exposure to inclemency a hardy animal 

 may be reared. There cannot be be a more palpable error. 

 The mountaineers are not able to work in their native state ; 

 they must be well supplied with good nutriment when their 

 active services are required, and that, with dry shelter, in a 

 well-ventilated building, is the keystone to physical power 

 and endurance. 



MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES. 



Agriculturists find it to their advantage to keep their 

 horses in the stables and yards throughout the summer, in 

 preference to turning them out into the pasture fielda The 

 manure which they make more than compensates for the ex- 

 pense of bringing their food to them. In the winter, an al- 

 lowance of Swedes saves a vast quantity of hay and corn, and 

 keeps the animals cool : they are preferable to carrots. Bran 

 is useful, but it should never be given to them, or to any 

 other horses, without being previously scalded. Some per- 

 sons have a most reprehensible practice of driving their 

 horses into ponds to drink, while attached to each other by 

 their gearing or harness; many have been drowned in con- 

 sequence. This class of men have also a most abominable 

 propensity for giving drugs of various kinds; a stern injunc- 

 tion should be laid against it. The plan of cutting their hay 

 into chaff is to be recommended, as it saves waste; where 

 this is not done, the quantity of food destroyed, but not con- 

 sumed, in cart stables is enormous. 



