190 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



this precaution it would speedily get a chill, when 

 serious consequences might ensue if left out in 

 this state. It is rare for a horse properly 

 prepared to catch cold when at grass, except 

 from an epidemic of strangles, or influenza ; but 

 if a horse is observed with a cold, it should at 

 once be taken into the stable and nursed till 

 recovered. 



It is sometimes put forward by persons of 

 limited experience that horses turned out to grass 

 are liable to become roarers in consequence, but 

 such a catastrophe need not be feared when 

 a horse is sound and of good conformation. It 

 has been previously pointed out that the shape 

 of certain throats renders it almost a matter 

 of certainty that some day roaring will supervene 

 under any conditions ; and the necessarily 

 relaxed state of the body consequent on living 

 on grass entirely, must include the throat as 

 well as other organs, and possibly may dispose 

 the malady to make an appearance earlier than it 

 would otherwise have done. But such a horse 

 would scarcely escape his fate under any conditions 

 in this climate, and it would be hardly fair to 

 attribute a case of roaring entirely to having been 

 out at grass, without the whole of the attendant 

 circumstances being known, and duly weighed. 

 Out of thousands of horses turned out to grass in 

 the writer's experience, there has not been one 

 single case of roaring follow in consequence. 

 It may here be mentioned that, amongst many 

 other winners, " Belmont " won for the writer 

 the Dunboyne Plate at Fairyhouse, and the 

 Conyngham Cup at Punchestown, after being 

 turned out to grass the previous summer : while 

 *' Monkshood " won the Grand National Hunters' 



