70 HORSES AND EIDING. 



manner as jou do in winter, that is, keeping liim np 

 in the stable, giving him hay and corn, or, as it is 

 called, 'dry meat,' and giving him some v^ork, or 

 rather exercise, every day ; in fact, with the exception 

 of there being no hunting days, making the horse's 

 treatment the same all the year round. 



Mr. Apperly, who wrote under the name of ' ISTim- 

 rod ' about thirty years ago, and who perhaps com- 

 bined a capacity for riding with a capacity for author- 

 ship, in a greater degree than most people, advocated 

 this method, with an occasional dose of physic, and 

 extolled its merits very highly. There is no doubt 

 that if you never let a horse go out of condition he 

 will always be in condition ; and if the horse is 

 wanted for any useful work this plan is right enough ; 

 but if it is only adopted for the sake of keeping the 

 horse in condition and nothing else, I should say 

 that it is not the most desirable plan. 



The expense is very much greater, the wear and 

 tear of the horse's limbs and system are greater, 

 though to what extent it is difiicult to say, and the 

 advantages are not greater than can be obtained in 

 another manner. 



Another method is to turn the horse out in a 

 grass field and leave it to take care of itself. This is 

 a bad plan. If the pasture is a rich one the horse will 

 get too fat, and if it is a bare one it will get too thin, 

 and either way it will lose the firmness of flesh it 

 lias to start with, owing to its losing the most nutri- 



