138 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



and others keeping a number of horses to lose several of 

 them within very short periods of each other with this 

 malady, from which an opinion prevails that this staggers 

 is contagious. Nothing can be more erroneous than this 

 belief, as it is quite certain it is the result of bad stable 

 management or by overfeeding the horse with unwhole- 

 some food, or by the horse feeding too voraciously as already 

 mentioned. This disease is much more common with old 

 horses than young ones, owing to the want of vital energy 

 in the digestive organs. Prevention in this complaint is 

 again better than cure, and therefore 1 would strongly 

 recommend owners of horses to look to them, and give 

 some attention to the following :— Too much food given 

 at one time after long fasting or hard work, or neglecting to 

 give the animal water, is certain to produce staggers. 



The hours of labour should be for limited spaces of 

 time, with proper intervals of rest allowed, and the 

 horse regularly fed during these intervals. Every man 

 must have felt the effects of going without his dinner 

 for three or four hours beyond the accustomed time. 

 Exhaustion is sure to follow, which is produced by the 

 juices acting upon the coating of an empty stomach. 

 From five to six hours is the usual time between the meals 

 of a labouring man, and with a horse that is worked no 

 longer interval should elapse without feeding and water- 

 ing. When persons are occasionally so situated that 

 they cannot unyoke their horses at stated times for food 

 and rest, they ought to carry hay and a nosebag with 

 a supply of corn with them. Indeed, it is surprising, 

 if they do not do it on the score of humanity, that they 

 should be so blind to their own interests as to neglect 



