A GOOD ALLOWANCE. 127 



Next to having oats good, and of a proper age, 

 it is a matter of vast importance to give them 

 crushed or bruised to all horses : for this an oat- 

 bruiser is desirable, as they should be bruised 

 fresh and fresh, that is, I should say, once a week : 

 the advantage to the horses is very great. If 

 horses are delicate, they eat them better : if 

 greedy, their bolting them is of less consequence : 

 and with all horses they digest better, and go fur- 

 ther in point of nutriment. 



It is quite a mistaken notion with those who 

 consider a hunter the most expensive sort of horse 

 to keep (race-horses being out of the question) : 

 a hunter, take him all the year round, does not 

 cost more than any common well-fed and well- 

 worked hack certainly not so much as a carriage- 

 horse. These gentlemen, like the gentlemen who 

 sit in front of, and sit or stand behind, the carriage, 

 are never off their appetite, or thoroughly on it ; 

 so nothing but the best does for them, and plenty 

 of it. The usual allowance of London carriage- 

 horses is three half-pecks a day, with beans when 

 (the coachman pleases to think them) necessary. 



Stage-coach horses in full work and health will 

 go close upon hiding away their half-bushel each, 

 with chaff; and for some old horses, beans with 

 it : but they earn it : their exhausture of animal 

 power is great, and their consumption of hay is 

 or, at least, ought to be a mere trifle. Doubt- 



