64 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



or he will get at the legs with his teeth. The blister also 

 seems to act as a kind of permanent bandage, tightening the 

 skin, applying pressure to tendons and ligaments, and fining 

 down the leg. The only objection is the pain to which the 

 horse is subjected. But I do not fancy, that the horse feels 

 pain very acutely in the extremities There are many 

 disadvantages in turning horses out to grass. If the 

 horse is a cheap one and you do not care much about 

 him, out with him ; but if he has carried you well and finishes 

 up the season sound but a bit worn, I think it false economy 

 to turn him out. It is like owning a shoot, spending money 

 on raising game, paying keepers and then trying to economise 

 by buying cheap cartridges. At grass flies are the deuce, they 

 make horses stamp and gallop about and damage themselves 

 on the hard ground. Also one can seldom turn a horse out 

 in a field all to himself. If with others, they are sure to gallop 

 and often kick one another. I have few recollections of a 

 horse coming up from grass as fresh on his legs as I had hoped. 

 My experience is that the best and safest way to dispose of a 

 horse in summer is to turn him into a big box or hovel, with 

 plenty of air and light and deep in old straw, bracken or 

 anything which makes a soft covering to the ground. The 

 horse never need come out, and if he gets a small feed of 

 oats every day he keeps his muscle wonderfully well and comes 

 up in autumn fat and big, and you have something to work on. 

 He should always have water with him. Give him as much 

 cut grass or clover as you like, together with hay, and a 

 feed of oats a day, from July ist onwards. If there is 

 adjoining the box a bit of an enclosed run, say 2oft. square, 

 with plenty of soft covering to the ground, so much the 

 better, but it is not essential ; horses do well in a big box and 

 nothing else. It seems an unnatural sort of process, but I 

 never knew a horse do badly in these circumstances. He 

 requires very little attention, needs no grooming, and when 

 he comes up he will take half the time to get fit that 

 a horse needs which has been out to grass, and he will 

 come up sound and clean limbed. His feet will have 

 grown and the frogs developed, whereas in a sun-baked 

 field his feet will be broken and not fit to take a shoe for 

 some time. 



