25 



SECTION IV. 



HORSE FOOD OF THE ANCIENTS — FORMING THE PACES POINTS OF A THO- 

 ROUGH SHAPED HORSE PERSONS OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS BIRTH PE- 

 CULIARLY INTERESTED IN THE HORSE — RIDI NG SCHOO LS ANCIENT 



PACES 



IN the articles of dry food, bedding and soiling, we are also strictly 

 the disciples of the ancients. They fed with corn, hay, and those 

 which, in this country, are deemed artificial grasses. Beside oats, 

 they alloAved their Horses wheat, but it is probable barley was most in 

 use, as at this day, in various countries. Together with common grass, 

 they had clover and trefoil, and also the Medica, or three-leaved grass of 

 Spain, supposed to have derived its name from media, whence it 

 originally came. With this really valuable grass, we have adopted 

 the high opinions of the ancients concerning it, who. held it superior to 

 all other food, for efficacy in the restoration of poor and weak Horses, 

 to sudden plumpness and vigour. Columella instructs to mow this grass 

 for soiling cattle, or for hay, from four to six times in the season. He, 

 as well as Pliny, equally recommends the ajtisus, but it is scarcely 

 agreed to what plant that name applied ; and it might not improbably 

 be the acacia, which in its early and tender state, the modern Italians 

 mow for the use of their cattle in the spring. Horses are said to be 

 extremely fond of it. Nanesiaii, Vegetius, and others, recommend bar- 

 ley and chopped straw as excellent provender, conducive in a high 

 degree to the Horse's health, cheerfulness and wind, rendering him fit 

 for the most active services ; barley was sometimes given by the ancients 

 to their Horses, boiled, A\hen they had but little exercise, as being in 

 that state more easy of digestion; also steeped in wine for particular 

 occasions: and we read in Homer, that Andromache presented wheat 

 steeped in wine, to the chariot-horses oi Hector. 



E The 



