148 THE SUMMERING OP HUNTERS. 



supply proper ventilation. The best treatise on the 

 subject, should he find it desirable to refer to one, 

 is Colonel Fitzwy gram's " Horses and Stables." 



The treading area is the next most important 

 consideration. In all cases the feet should rest on 

 a soft surface, because they are if not without shoes, 

 at least only sparingly protected with iron in the 

 form of plates. Spent tan is without doubt the 

 best covering for the floor, but it ought not to be 

 coarse, neither should it be allowed to remain on 

 the ground an indefinite length of time. A¥e must 

 remember that we cannot remove the urine from it. 

 The water of the urine may possibly get away by 

 drainage or by evaporation, but the salts of the 

 urine remain in it and are in time decomposed. It 

 should neither be too dry nor at all swampy. If it 

 be too dry, the feet get dry and brittle and will chip 

 and split, but if too moist it is very apt to set up a 

 stinking discharge in the cleft of the frog (thrush) 

 which, being allowed to remain will surely wreck 

 the frog, and, of course the back portion of the foot. 

 The tannin remaining in spent bark is a capital 

 astringent, and has a direct tendency to keep away 

 " thrush," or to dry it up should it be present, but 

 there may be too much tannin and wet from the 

 bark as it comes direct from the pit. When this is 

 so, a day or two's exposure to the sun will remove 

 the extra moisture. Some mix sawdust with it, but 

 this is quite unnecessary. Sawdust ought never to 

 be used for horses to tread upon. It is too dry. 



