A WINTER'S RUN 313 



often disregarded and without bad results when collateral circulation is 

 well established. 



Since the earlier editions of this work were published there has been a 

 great diminution in the number of obliterated veins, as bleeding is seldom 

 resorted to now and not performed in the rough-and-ready way of our 

 grandsires. 



A WINTER'S RUN 



THERE ARE ONLY TWO CAUSES that can ever influence an owner in turning 

 his horse out to grass during the winter, one being a desire to restore his 

 legs or feet to a state of health, and the other the diminution of expense. 

 The former is a perfectly valid reason, for experience teaches us that the 

 comparative starvation and cold incidental to a winter's run are highly 

 beneficial in reducing the effects of inflammation. A horse will frequently 

 remain all the summer out-of-doors without the slightest benefit to his legs, 

 but after a month's cold they will show a marked improvement, and by the 

 spring be wonderfully restored. 



Turning out in the case of old horses with indifferent teeth and constitu- 

 tions enfeebled by long years of indulgence in too much corn is an undoubted 

 hardship, but for others the so-called cruelty of a winter's run has been 

 somewhat exaggerated. Of course, if a clipped horse, clothed and hitherto 

 maintained in a warm stable, is turned out without preparation, he will pass 

 a very miserable week or two until scurf and dirt and sprouting coat have 

 formed some defence for him against cold and wet. His ability to with- 

 stand the exposure will depend largely upon the amount of food supplied 

 him, a great part of it being used in producing heat. For the foregoing 

 reason a winter's run is not the economic success expected, since in addition 

 to greater risk of death from disease, all animals need more food in propor- 

 tion to the exposure to which they are subjected. The opponents of winter- 

 ing horses at grass, or out-doors we should prefer to say, since they should 

 never in this fickle climate be compelled to depend on winter grass, the 

 opponents, we say, rather presuppose a clipped horse or one whose services 

 are to be suddenly discontinued rather than the deliberately planned winter's 

 run arranged with judgment and care. In speaking of summering at grass 

 we have pointed out the desirability of inquiring into the antecedents both 

 of the pasture and the agister ; how much more necessary should such 

 assurance of the horse's care be when it is intended to winter him out ! The 

 hovel in which he sought shelter from flies and the glare of the sun will in 

 the winter protect him from the east wind if it is constructed as it should 

 be ; in it he can be fed with hay or roots when snow lies thickly around. 

 It should be part of the contract that hay or corn shall be given in case of 

 snow, as the agister is not then relieved of all responsibility for returning 

 a horse as poor as a rook, by telling the owner there was plenty of grass 

 and he was not liable for the snow covering it. Many thousands of horses, 

 both agricultural and nags, upon the rich pastures of counties like Somerset 

 and Devon, never come into a stable except to be harnessed for work ; they 

 maintain too much fat, as a rule, certainly not suffering from the want of it, 

 and only when the snow happens to hide their food or too many animals to 



