CHAPTER XXIII 



VACATIONS FOR HORSES 



npHERE are thousands of horses hard at work today 

 -*- who have begun to run down hill, and will be 

 worthless or nearly so within a year or two; and yet 

 if these horses could be given a rest and a chance to 

 recuperate they would, in a few months, be worth 

 almost as much as the price originally paid for them. 

 Some of these horses are what is called "grain-burnt." 

 They have had so many years of feeding on hard, dry, 

 stimulating food that their blood and digestive organs 

 are in bad condition. They lose flesh and spirits. 

 Others are simply tired out. Their muscles have been 

 overtaxed, and have lost all elasticity. These horses 

 may be in good flesh, but they are slow and dull. I 

 once saw a horse used by a rural mail carrier that, 

 being naturally a good feeder, and having all the grain 

 that he could eat, was in fine flesh; but he did double 

 the work of an ordinary horse; that is, he traveled 

 twenty-three miles a day for six days in the week, and 

 he was so tired and stiff that to trot was positively 

 painful for him. Now, both of these classes of horses, 

 the grain-burnt and the muscle-tired, if practically 

 sound, can often be restored by a short vacation to a 

 remarkable degree of health and activity. 



The following letter to the author from a leading 

 truckman in an eastern city states a case of this kind: 



[127] 



