PRACTICE OF FEEDING. 267 



lures on the seashore, and occasionally laid undei salt-water, 

 are supposed to be more salubrious than others. They are 

 termed salt-marshes, saltings, or ings. For horses worn down, 

 by bad food, hard work, or disease, they are recommended by 

 several authorities as peculiarly renovating, but their supe- 

 riority is not unquestionable. Whatever be the nature of the 

 soil and of the herbage, there should be abundance of grass, 

 a supply of water, shelter from the sun and the storm, and 

 fences to enforce confinement. 



It is probable that grass eaten in the field produces quite the 

 same effects as that eaten in the stable. But at pasture there 

 are several agents in operation to which the stabled horse is 

 not necessarily exposed. The exercise he must take, and the 

 position his head must assume, in order that he may obtain 

 food ; the annoyance he suffers from flies ; his exposure to 

 the weather ; the influence of the soil upon the feet and legs ; 

 and the quantity of food placed at his disposal, appear to me 

 to be all the circumstances which make pasturing different 

 from soiling. They deserve a little notice in detail. 



THE EXERCISE which the pastured horse must take as he 

 gathers his food, varies according to the state of the herbage. 

 When the ground is bare, the exercise may amount even to 

 work, but to a sound horse it is never injurious ; in cold 

 weather it keeps him warm, or, at least, prevents him from 

 becoming very cold. With a lame horse the case is different. 

 In some lamenesses, the slow but constant exercise which a 

 horse must take at grass is beneficial. It is so in the navicu- 

 lar disease, and in all other chronic diseases of the joints ; 

 of which, howevnr, there are not many in the horse. The 

 exertion which a bare pasture demands, is unfavorable to any 

 sprain or lameness arising from disease in the ligaments and 

 tendons. Lameness when very great, no matter where seat- 

 ed, forbids pasturing, even though the herbage be knee-high. 

 The pain of standing, and moving on two or three legs, may 

 be so great that the horse will be compelled to lie before he 

 has obtained half a meal. In a rich pasture he will lose flesh, 

 and in a bare one he will starve. I have seen groggy horses, 

 even where the grass was abundant, so much reduced that 

 they could hardly move. They could not stand till they ob- 

 tained sufficient food, and they could obtain none when lying. 



It is for slight lameness only that horses should be turned 

 out ; and the pastures should be such as to afford sufficient 

 nutriment, without giving the horse more exercise than is 

 good for the disease. 



