FEEDING. 177 



ther is warm, the ventilators should be opened as usual, and the 

 windows also if necessary ; but it is better to err on the safe side, 

 and not to do this till the groom is perfectly satisfied that his 

 charge are *-ll comfortably warm. 



CHAPTER XI. 



STABLE MANAGEMENT. 



Vheory of '■ Practice of Feeding and Watering — Dressing or Groom- 

 ing — C''pping, Singeing, and Trimming — Use and Application 

 of Ihndages — Management of the Feet — Daily Exercise — Fro- 

 per Temperature — Remedies for Stable Vices and Bad Habits — 

 Preparation for Work — Ordinary Sweating — The Turkish 

 Bath — Physic — Final Preparation — Treatment after Work — 

 Summering — Care of Saddlery and Harness. 



In the following pages, my attention will be specially di- 

 rected to the management of private stables ; and therefore the 

 race-horse, the omnibus and cab horse, and the poster, will not pass 

 under review. Those who are engaged in their superintendence 

 make it their business to ascertain what is best to be done; and, 

 whether they do or not, each of them fancies that he knows better 

 than any one else how to elFect his object. 



THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FEEDING AND DRINK 



In adapting the quantity and quality of horse-keep to the wants 

 of each horse, regard must be paid first of all to the small size 

 of this animal's stomach, which affects all alike ; secondly, to 

 the work for which he is designed; and thirdly, to the peculiar 

 constitution of each individual. From the first of these causes the 

 horse must never be allowed to fast for any long period if it can 

 possibly be avoided, it being found from experience that at the end 

 of four hours his stomach is empty, and the whole frame becomus 

 exhausted, while the appetite is frequently so impaired if he is 

 kept fasting for a longer period that when food is presented to hiui 

 it will not be taken. Previously to the introduction of railroads 

 harness-horses were often required to do long distances in the day, 

 and it was found that if the whole journey must be performed 

 without stopping to bait, it exhausted the horse less to increase 

 the pace up to nine or ten miles an hour than to dawdle over the 

 ground on an empty stomach. If two horses are driven or ridden 

 fifty or sixty miles under similar conditions as to the weight they 

 have to draw or carry, and th,- one is taken at the rate of six miles 



M 



