In the Stable , Field, and on the Road. 63 



undertake to build horses as many contractors do houses . 

 run up the frames and bare walls, and then sell them to 

 other people to put the plaster on ; or perhaps they are 

 of a philosophic turn of mind, and would answer as 

 Butterwick did, when twitted about his horse, " Who 

 wants to see a horse even from stem to stern ? No, sir • 

 it is monotonous and wearisome to the mind. Which is 

 best, a level plain, or landscape with a little bit of hill 

 and a little bit of valley ? You have it in a horse like 

 mine ; and, beside, you are always sure that nobody has 

 stolen a single, solitary bone, and you have all you pur- 

 chased. If he was as fat as a bladder of lard, how should 

 we know that some of its most important bones were not 

 missing ? " The carriage horse and hunter should always 

 be fed on the best old oats, with white peas or beans, or 

 what is better, both. Some people will say that old 

 beans make horses legs fill; depend upon it, they 

 oftener fill for the want of them. Four quarterns of 

 oats and one of beans, is as much as one horse will 

 eat in a day as a rule, if he is in good condition, 

 with a little sweet hay morning and night. I always 

 give cut hay with the corn, as it makes the 

 horse masticate his food better ; he does not swallow 

 the corn whole, as some greedy feeders are apt to do. I 

 do not think clover good for horses in fast work, but am 

 fond of good sanfoin to cut up. Mouldy and mow-burnt 

 hay are very injurious to the horse ; the first will be sure 

 to make the animal thick-winded and ultimately go 

 broken-winded. It produces irritation in the air cells by 

 the fungal growth of mould, and mow-burnt hay is 

 equally bad, as it acts powerfully upon the kidneys, often 



