LETTER III 



THE EFFECTS OF CONDITION — THE STABLE, AND 

 STABLE MANAGEMENT 



IN all matters of domestic economy, maxims 

 pass from mouth to mouth, and are established 

 by tradition, without even making the ex- 

 periment, as that might at once give them the 

 lie. We seldom inquire into the causes of things 

 continually before our eyes. Habitual acquaintance 

 renders them familiar to our observation, and checks 

 that curiosity which is the strongest incentive to 

 knowledge. We see such things, but never inquire 

 how they came to be so. The phenomena of disease 

 — the phenomena of life itself — are not more un- 

 searchable, or more difficult to account for, than are 

 those changes and alterations which take place in the 

 condition of horses. I once heard a veterinary surgeon 

 of great repute declare, that he would give five hundred 

 guineas if he could find out why a blind horse should 

 have a smooth coat in winter and a rough one in 

 summer, which happens to nine out of ten. 



We are too apt to look upon a horse as a piece of 

 mechanism which we can use at our pleasure, without 

 ever considering that the machine must be in order 

 before we can avail ourselves of its power. A horse 



