50 THE HORSE 



In many stables it is the practice to roll up the bed- 

 ding, often wet, and leave it at the head of the stall, 

 under the manger, where it cannot dry and is offensive 

 to the horse. 



Another important thing is to tie the horse with a 

 sufficiently long halter rope to enable him to rest his 

 head on the bedding. "Give a horse a wide stall," 

 says H. W. Sayre, " a good soft bed, and halter rope 

 enough to let his head go down comfortably on his 

 bed, and you can keep him on three-quarters of the 

 feed which would otherwise be required." 



If a horse is properly cleaned there is little danger 

 of his getting cast, unless he belongs to that small class 

 of horses that make a practice of becoming cast. Such 

 horses should really be kept in a box stall, and if that 

 is not done, they should be so tied with a rope coming 

 from overhead, fastened to a weight, and attached to 

 the headstall, that they can touch their noses to the 

 floor, but cannot lay their heads flat on the floor. 



When there is a man in the stable all night even this 

 precaution is not necessary, for he can easily take care 

 of a horse that becomes cast. Sometimes, to save 

 themselves trouble, stablemen will tie up a horse that 

 is apt to become cast in such a way that the poor brute 

 can never lie down at all. Nothing could be more 

 cruel, or better calculated to wear out the horse. 



Some horses never lie down, and in almost every 

 stable that contains fifty horses or more, you will find 

 one or two of these unfortunates. As a rule, the cause 

 is fear: the horse has been hurt through being cast, or 

 has injured his hips in a stall too narrow for him, or 



