PASTURINO. 161 



■ Quantity of food. In the stable, a horse^s food can be 

 apportioned to him as his wants may require ; but at pasture, 

 he may get too much or too little. It is difficult to put the 

 horse where he will obtain all the nourishment he needs, and 

 no more. In a rich pasture, he may acquire an inconvenient 

 load of fat ; in a poor one, he may be half starved. If he 

 must go out, he may be taken in before he becomes too fat ; 

 or he may be placed in a bad pasture, and fed up to the point 

 required by a daily allowance of grain. 



Time of turning out. Horses are pastured at all times of 

 the year. Some are out for lameness, some for bad health, 

 and some, that they may be kept for less than the stable 

 cost. The usual time of turning out is about the end of 

 April, or the beginning of May. Then the grass is young, 

 juicy, tender, and more laxative than at a later period. The 

 spring grass is best for a horse in bad health, worn out by 

 sickness, hard work, or bad food. The weather is mild, neither 

 too hot nor too cold ; when it is unsettled and backward, the 

 delicate horse, and sometimes every one, should come in at 

 night and on bleak days. Toward the end of summer, the 

 grass is hard, dry, coarse, fit enough to afford nutriment, but 

 not to renovate a shattered constitution. The days are hot, 

 the nights cold and damp, and the flies strong and numerous. 

 This is not the time for turning out a delicate or thin-skinned 

 horse. 



Many persons are accustomed to give the horse a dose or 

 two of physic before sending him to grass. Unless the animal 

 has tumid legs, or is afflicted with some ailment, this is en- 

 tirely unnecessary, though it may do no harm. To prepare 

 the horse for exposure to the weather, 'the clothing to which 

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