54 Among Men and Horses. 



importance of walking a horse which is heated from work, 

 about until he has cooled down, not alone give orders to 

 their servants to this effect, but sometimes purposely have 

 the stables a couple of miles or so distant from the stage 

 halting-places, so as to ensure the observance of this rule. 

 As the scientific discussion of this question is outside the 

 province of this book, I may content myself with saying that 

 all horses, and especially hard-working ones, will last much 

 longer if, instead of being put into their stalls when they 

 return heated from work, they be walked about until their 

 circulation has resumed its normal condition. The observance 

 of this precaution is even more important for the preserva- 

 tion of the soundness of an animal's feet than for shielding 

 him from the evil effects of chill. If we consider for a 

 moment the mechanism of the blood supply to the feet, we 

 shall see how liable the neglect of the simple precaution I 

 am advocating is to be followed by an attack of laminitis, 

 or navicular disease. It would well repay the shareholders 

 of omnibus and tramway companies to insist that this rule 

 should be observed with their animals. 



Among other improved methods of stable management 

 which I introduced into India, I taught that horses should be 

 cleaned by being hand-rubbed, whisped and brushed down, 

 and not by washing them, as was formerly the usual practice; 

 and that hay or dried grass should be given at the same time 

 as the corn. Withholding the hay until the animal has eaten 

 his oats, is like making a man who is at dinner, finish his 

 allowance of meat before giving him any bread or vegetebles. 

 The practice now common in England of giving * chop ' with 

 the oats is an excellent one. The bad custom of washing 

 horses in order to clean them is practised in many English 

 livery stables, in which the grooms may be well excused for 

 ' slurring over ' their work by the fact that, as a rule, each of 

 them are supposed to ' do ' from six to nine horses. Wash- 

 ing the legs is a fruitful cause of cracked heels and serves no 

 useful purpose. During the half hour which is the least por- 



