370 " THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE. 



as the eyes are concerned, a dark stable is little less injurious than a foul and heated 

 one. In order to illustrate this, reference may be made to the unpleasant feeling, and 

 the utter impossibilitj^ of seeing distinctly, whtn a man suddenly emerges from a 

 dark place into the fall blaze of day. The sensation of mingled pain and giddiness 

 is not soon forgotten ; and some minutes pass before the eye can accommodate itself 

 1o the increased light. If this were to happen every day, or several times in the day, 

 the sight would be irreparably injured, or possibly blindness would ensue. Can we 

 wonder, then, that the horse, taken from a dark stable into a glare of light, feeling, 

 probably, as we should do under similar circumstances, and unable for a considerable 

 time to see anything around him distinctly, should become a starter, or that the fre- 

 quently repeated violent effect of sudden light should induce inflammation of the eye 

 so intense as to terminate in blindness'? There is, indeed, no doubt that horses kept 

 in dark stables are frequently notorious starters, and that abominable habit has been 

 properly traced to this cause. 



Farmers know, and should profit by the knowledge, that the darkness of the stable 

 is not unfrequently a cover for great uncleanliness. A glazed window, with leaden 

 divisions between the small panes, would not cost much, and would admit a degree 

 of light somewhat more approaching to that of day, and at the same time would ren- 

 der the concealment of gross inattention and want of cleanliness impossible. 



If plenty of light is admitted, the walls of the stable, and especially that portion 

 of them which is before the horse's head, must not be of too glaring a colour. The 

 constant reflection from a white w'all, and especially if the sun shines into the stable, 

 will be as injurious to the eye as the sudden changes from darkness to light. The 

 per|)etual slight excess of stimulus will do as much mischief as the occasional but 

 more violent one when the animal is taken from a kind of twilight to the blaze of 

 day. The colour of the stable, therefore, should depend on the quantity of light. 

 Where much can be admitted, the walls should be of a grey hue. Where dark- 

 ness would otherwise prevail, frequent whitewashing may in some degree dissipate 

 the gloom. 



For another reason, it will bo evident that the stable should not possess too glaring 

 a light: it is the resting-place of the horse. The work of the farmer's horse, indeed, 

 is confined principally to the day. The hour of exertion having passed, the animal 

 returns to his stable to feed and to repose, and the latter is as necessary as the former, 

 in order to prepare him for renewed work. Something approaching to the dimness 

 of twilight is requisite to induce the animal to compose himself to sleep. This half- 

 light more particularly suits horses of heavy work, and who draw almost as much by 

 the weight of carcass which they can throw into the collar, as by the degree of mus- 

 cular energy of which they are capable. In the quietness of a dimly-lighted stable, 

 they obtain repose, and accumulate flesh and fat. Dealers are perfectly aware of this. 

 They have their darkened staldes, in which the young horse, with little or no exercise, 

 and fed upon mashes and ground corn, is made up for sale. The round and plump 

 appearance, however, which may delude the unwary, soon vanishes with altered 

 treatment, and the animal is found to be unfit for hard work, and predisposed to many 

 an inflammatory disease. The circumstances, then, under which a stable somewhat 

 darkened may be allowed, will be easily determined by the owner of the horse; but, 

 as a general rule, dark stables are unfriendly to cleanliness, and the frequent cause of 

 the vice of starting, and of the most serious diseases of the eyes. 



GROOMING. 



Of this, much need not be said to the agriculturist, since custom, and apparently 

 without ill efi'ect, has allotted so little of the comb and brush to the farmer's horse. 

 The animal that is worked all day, and turned out at night, requires little more to be 

 done to him than to have the dirt brushed oft" his limbs. Regular grooming, l)y ren- 

 dering bis skin more sensible to the alteration of temperature, and the inclemency of 

 the weather, would be prejudicial. The horse that is altogether turned out, needs no 

 grooming. The dandrift", or scurf, which accumulates at the roots of the hair, is a 

 provision of nature to defend him from the wind and the cold. 



It is to the stabled horse, highly fed, and little or irregularly worked, that grooming 

 is of so much consequence. Good rubbing with the brush, or the currycomb, opens 

 the pores of the skin, circulates the blood to the extremities of the body, produces 

 free and healthy perspiration, and stands in the room of exercise. No horse will 



