i 



Chapter IV 



STABLE MANAGEMENT 



question of economical stable man- 

 agement is a matter that sooner or 

 later comes closely home to both the 

 heart and the pocket of the amateur 

 who invests in horseflesh, and who is, as a rule, 

 heavily handicapped by the fact that he is igno- 

 rant of proper methods, and of the point where 

 wise liberality should cease and true economy 

 begin. Primarily, difficulty arises from the fact 

 that the first economy the novice practises is 

 almost invariably a most unwise one. This is 

 an unwillingness to pay first-class men first-class 

 wages ; the trying to make a born " hewer of 

 wood and drawer of water" successfully fill the 

 place of a capable servant ; the putting of a man 

 in charge of a stud or stable whose only previous 

 " four-in-hand " experience has been gained by 

 looking after three cows and a horse ; the in- 

 trusting of the family to the steerage of a deck- 



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