476 PASTURING AND TURNING OUT. 



pending upon the time of year. The clothing should be 

 snugly kept in place by straps across the chest and a strong 

 surcingle. 



During fly time and in hot weather the horse should be 

 taken up in the middle of the day and given as much pro- 

 tection from these sources of annoyance as circumstances 

 permit. In June and July the servants should examine the 

 fore quarters each day, and if any eggs of the gadfly are 

 found they should be removed. They may easily be detected, 

 as they are of a reddish color and about the size of a pin- 

 head. If these larvae are not destroyed the horse licks them 

 off, and by such means they are conveyed into the intestines, 

 where they develop into bots. 



1 " It is entirely useless to attempt any treatment to rid the horse of bots ; 

 they go at their appointed time, and cannot be dislodged before this. We 

 should remember that in following their natural course or stages of existence 

 the bots loose their hold during May and June mostly. They are then 

 expelled in great numbers, and horse owners, noticing them in the manure, 

 hasten to us, saying, ' My horse has the bots.' If we are honest we tell him 

 that, in the natural course of events, nature is doing for him that which 

 we cannot do. We may say in conclusion, then, that bots seldom produce 

 any evil effects whatever ; that no more than once in ten thousand times are 

 they the cause of colicky symptoms, and that they require no medicine to 

 eject them." C. B. Michener, in " Special Report on the Diseases of the 

 Horse," U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. j6. 



It is of the greatest importance that the paddock or field 

 should be thoroughly inspected before the horse is allowed 

 his freedom. Defective fencing, barb wire, nails, glass, ver- 

 min, holes and quicksand are the chief dangers met with. 

 If possible two or more horses should not be turned out in 

 the same field for the first time together, as they are apt to 

 injure one another. On clear, warm, summer nights horses 



