72 HOESES AND EIDING. 



when preparing them for the season's hunting, but 

 I do not believe either in the necessity or even the 

 benefit of this proceeding. If the horse is perfectly 

 well it is superfluous, and if he is not perfectly well 

 it is tacit evidence that he has not been treated in 

 the best manner during summer or after he comes up. 

 It is often, I daresay, found, that a horse's legs will 

 swell if he does not get a dose of physic, and that if he 

 then gets one his legs will become fine again. But 

 his legs onl}^ swell because he has been improperly 

 treated, and giving him physic is only treating him 

 improperly a second time to counteract the effects of 

 the first improper treatment. If a horse is amiss he 

 will no doubt require medicine ; but the best rule, 

 where it is practicable, is, not to give him any 

 medicine when there is not anything the matter with 

 him, and to send for a veterinary surgeon when there 

 is anything the matter with him. 



A horse after being summered and then brought 

 up to get ready for hunting, falls amiss from one 

 or more, of three things : too sudden or too great 

 a change in food, ditto in work or exercise, ditto in 

 temperature of stable or the atmosphere he breathes. 

 Now, the first can be avoided by changing his 

 food by degrees, either giving him hay before he has 

 come up into the stable or continuing giving him 

 grass after he is brought up. Corn I am supposing 

 he has all the year round. Too great a change in 

 work will not arise if he has been accustomed to run 



