EXERCISE. 87 



for the purposes of health and for the maintenance of the condition re- 

 quired for the ordinary purposes of riding and driving. 



It is necessary, however, to give a caution against what servants often 

 call two hours' exercise. In most establishments it will be found that it 

 means little more than an hour and a quarter, and all the time at a walk. 

 Servants are generally supposed to go to the stable at six o'clock in the 

 morning, but are usually somewhat later. Sweeping out the stable, 

 watering, feeding, and saddling occupy some twenty minutes, and it may 

 probably be the half-hour before the horses really leave the stable. They 

 are generally brought in again by a quarter to eight, that is, in time to 

 allow the servants to tie them up, unsaddle, and rub down their legs 

 before their breakfast, which is usually at eight o'clock. This is what is 

 called two hours' exercise in most establishments, but a great many do 

 not come up even to this very moderate mark. 



157. Of exercising in clothing. 



A question is often asked, whether horses ought to be exercised in 

 clothing? In moderate weather it is better that they should be accus- 

 tomed to go without it. It is false in principle to habituate a horse to 

 the need of an artificial protection, which on other occasions it is impos- 

 sible to give him. It may indeed be urged, that horses are usually taken 

 to exercise at an earlier and more chilly hour than they are ridden by 

 their owners. On the other hand, it may be replied, that horses at exer- 

 cise need clothing less than at other times, because they never need and 

 certainly never ought to be kept standing ; whereas in the uses to which 

 the owner puts his horses, it must occasionally, if not frequently happen, 

 that they are kept standing for a considerable time, perhaps even when 

 heated. Horses, however, which have been recently clipped or singed, 

 ought to be exercised in clothing. A single rug or hood will be sufficient 

 under ordinary circumstances. More harm than good is caused by exer- 

 cising in too heavy clothing. 



When it is desired to sweat a horse, the question of clothing, or no 

 clothing, or double clothing, will of course depend on the amount of flesh 

 and coat which the particular animal happens to cany. 



157&. Exercise or work in bandages. 



When horses are ridden in bandages in deep ground or muddy ground, 

 it sometimes happens that the mud works between the bandage and the 

 skin, and causes excessive irritation and swelling, somewhat resembling 

 mud fever. 



158. Time for exercising horses. 



It is the practice in most stables to exercise the horses in the early 

 morning, for the servants after exercise to go to breakfast, and for the 

 horses to be cleaned after breakfast. The object of this arrangement is 

 to save the servants the trouble of grooming the horses a second time. 



