Book VII. STABLING AND GROOMING HORSES. 943 



and corn should be given at night; the next in quantity in the morning; the other two portions at 

 noon, and about four in the afternoon. This however must depend on the work of the horse, and other 

 circumstances. 



6026. Watering of horses is an important part of their management, and many errors are committed 

 relative to it. It is equally erroneous to debar them frori it, as it is to allow them too much ; and the 

 former is much the most common evil. In summer, or vhen from great perspiration, the animal juices 

 are wasted, it generates fevers, and wastes the strength j nd spirits. All horses i)refer soft water, and as 

 nature is unerring, there is no doubt but that it is the most wholesome. As some horses drink quicker 

 than others, it is not a gootl custom to take riding horse ; to a pond, unless at night, when the quantity 

 cannot harm them ; or when not intended for early wor ; the next morning, as hunting, &c. 



6027. T/tc necessarj/ quantity of water for a horse siiould be regulated by circumstances, as the weather, 

 the work, &c. In common cases, a large horse requires rather more than the half of a large stable pail 

 full twice in the day. At night a full pail should be al owed. Horses sliould never be galloped after 

 drinking; it has destroyed thousands, by gripes, inflimnntions, and broken wind. This custom also uses 

 horses to expect they are to run away directly they are ac:;identally watered at any time. Others, expect- 

 ing they are to be fatigued with a gallop, will avoid drink ng at all. The most that should ever be done, is 

 to suffer no horse to drink his fill at a river or pond ; but having giving him half what is necessary, walk 

 him ten minutes, and then give him all that is required, j.nd walk him again. 



Sect. XV. Of the Stabling and Grooming of Horses. 



6028. The stabling of horses is likewise a mcst important point in their management, 

 the more so as being wholly a deviation from n iture ; hence, under the most judicious 

 management it is liable to produce some dcp:irtre from health, and as some times 

 managed, is most hurtful to it. Clothing, dressing or combing, and exercise, are also 

 highly important. 



6029. Every stable should be large, cool, and airy. It is too common to suppose that warmth is so con- 

 genial to horses, that they cannot be kept too liot; bul there is reason to suppose that many of the 

 diseases of horses are attributable to the enervating effects of unnatural heat, and of an air breathed and 

 rebreathed over again. Blaine says. Is it not alike repug lant to reason and experience, to expect to keep 

 animals in health, that from stables heated to sixty degrees, and further protected by warm clothing, are 

 first stripped, and then at once exposed to a temperature at the freezing point ? If it be argued that habit 

 and exercise render these less hurtful, it will be easy to <nswer that tiieir original hardihood is lost by 

 confinement and artificial treatment ; and that neither d( es exercise always tend to obviate the effects of 

 this sudden change : for our best carriage horses, and hackneys also, have often to wait hours in roads and 

 streets the convenience of their owners, or the pleasure of the groom. 



60o0. The heat of a stable should be regulated by a thermometer, and the heat shown by it should never 

 exceed 50" of Fahrenheit in winter, or 62 or 63" in sumrier. To renew the air, the stable should be well 

 ventilated ; and which is best done by trunks or tubes passing from the ceiling through the roof. 



6031. A stable should not only be ivell ventilated, but it should be light also ; arid the windows should be so 

 constructed as to admit light and air, without making a current of wind on the bodies of the horses. 

 Darkened stables are very hurtful to the eyes ; neither d( they, as was formerly supposed at Newmarket, 

 tend to the condition or rest of a horse. 



6032. A stable should have a close ceiling to keep the du?t and dirt from the hay-loft from entering the 

 horses' eyes. It also necessary to prevent the ammoniac il gases from ascending and lodging in the hay. 

 It is preferable that the hay-loft be altogether removed from over the stable ; and if a very high ceiling 

 even to the roof were substituted, it would be for the benefit of the horses. 



6033. The form of the rrtcA- an^fwzan^rer should be attended to. Sloping racks are disadvantageous, as 

 encouraging dust in the eyes. They should therefore je upright, and by no means so high as they 

 usually are, by which the head and neck are put injuriously on the stretch. As a proof that this is 

 unpleasant to horses, many of them first pull out all t le hay, and then leisurely eat it. The manger 

 should be wide at the bottom, and of a proper height : crre should be taken that no splinters are present 

 to endanger the lips, nose, and mouth. The halter reins should, in good stables, be suffered to run 

 within a groove within the manger post, to prevent the r<in entangling the legs. 



6034. The stalls of a stable should be ivide. Strains in tlie back, and sometimes even worse evils, are the 

 consequence of the standings being too narrow. Bails ar>! objectionable from the ease with which horses 

 can kick over them ; and alse from the quickest feeder getting most food, when several horses stand 

 together bailed. 



6035. The acclimty of the stalls is a matter of much dispute : when too much raised, as in dealers' stables, 

 they put the back sinews on the stretch, and fatigue horsts much. It is more natural that they should be 

 even; or that a very slight slope only be allowed to carry off the urine. The best mode, however, of 

 carrying off the urine, is by means of a small grating to ea^h stall, communicating with a cess pool without 

 doors, which should be closed up, that a current of air may not come through the grating. Such a 

 contrivance will effectually carry off the water, and pre\ent the volatile alkali of the urine from impreg- 

 nating the air around. For the same reasons the dung should be removed, if possible, wholly without 

 the stable as soon as dropped; for the exhalations fron that are also ammoniacal, and consequently 

 hurtful. To this cause alone, we may attribute many diseases; particularly the great tendency stabled 

 horses have to become affected in the eyes. The punge icy of this effluvia is familiar to every one on 

 entering a close stable in the morning, and when the long-soiled litter is removed, it is absolutely 

 unbearable. 



6036. The litter of horses should be kept dry and sweet, and should be often removed. When 

 it is suffered to remain, under the notion of making bett( r dung, the horse may be ruined ; neither does 

 the manure benefit as is supposed ; for when it is remoi^ed to the dung pit, the close confinement does 

 it more good than the open exposure in the stable, when it parts with its salts, on which its properties 

 as manure partly depend. 



6037. Horses should not stand on litter during the d ly, although very generally suffered to do so. 

 Litter is thought to save the shoes and even the feet, by j feventing the uneven surface of the stable from 

 hurting them : but it holds the urine ; it tenders the fee:; it heats them also; and is very apt to encou- 

 rage swelling at the heels : as we know by removing it, vhen they immediately go down. A little litter 

 may be strewed behind to obviate the effect of kicking, ( r the splashing of urine in marcs. 



(3038. The clothing of horses is apt to be carried to as erron sous an extent, as the heat of their stables. When 

 horses go out in cold weather, and are intended to have me rely a long walking exercise, then cloth ing is very 

 proper: but it must be evident, that when taken clothe! Irom a stable and exercised briskly so as to 

 jiroduce perspiration, it is erroneous; for not only are the clothes wetted and thus liable to give cold, 

 but the horse is unfitted to go out afterwards with a sadcle only. S.-iddle horses kept in condition stand 

 clothed in a kersey sheet, and girted with a broad roller, >vith occasionally the addition of a quarter-piece ; 

 the breast-plate is sometimes put on when going out to exercise ; the hood is used to race-hor.ses only, 

 except in case of sickness. All horses, excepting raorrs, are best without clothing in the summer 

 season. 



6039, The grooming or dressing of horses h generally thus practised : having tied 



