2s8 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



with a footguard ; it is an excellent preventive against waste 

 of food while eating. 



I look with abhorrence upon the ordinary water-pot with 

 chain and plug. It soils the water if not kept most scru- 

 pulously clean, and frets the horse besides. I approve of 

 those that move upon a pivot, thus enabling the refuse 

 liquid to be at once turned out, and the pot itself kept 

 perfectly sweet and clean. 



For bedding I do not think that anything is better than 

 prime wheaten straw, properly shaken down and evened, to 

 secure the comfort of the horse when he stretches or rolls. 

 To leave it in lumps is both wasteful and cruel, for when it 

 is so an animal cannot rest upon it for more than a very 

 short period of time. He becomes restless and disquieted, 

 he fidgets about, just as we do when we have the misfortune 

 to be put to sleep on a hard, lumpy, uncomfortable bed, — 

 and by-and-by he stands up, fretted, and declines to stretch 

 himself any more. Thus his rest is disturbed and broken, 

 and he is unfitted for his work next day. 



Straw must of course be frequently changed, according 

 as it becomes littered, broken up, or damp. It is some- 

 times left open to the inroads of dogs and poultry, a thing 

 that ought to be guarded against for various reasons, among 

 which may be counted the liability of vermin, which very 

 soon find their way to the horse. 



The best place for a granary is over a shed or coach- 

 house. It ought to be a cool, airy apartment, with concrete 

 floor, and walls lined with glazed brick. In small estab- 

 lishments the corn chest supplies the place of one. This, 



