22 ON GROOMS AND STABLES. 



CHAPTER II. 



CARE AND TREATMENT GENERALLY. ON GROOMS AND 



STABLES. 



HAVING spoken of the most important points to be 

 looked at or decided upon, I will now suppose my 

 reader in possession of one or more sound horses; the 

 next important feature is to keep them so. 



A good groom is indispensable. His attributes should 

 be sobriety, carefulness, industry, honesty, truthfulness, 

 and a fondness for and general knowledge of how to feed 

 and clean his charges. On engaging him supposing him 

 to answer all the above requirements make it the most 

 important feature in your bargain (put it down in black 

 and white for fear of any misunderstanding) that he is not 

 to give medicine of any kind or in any shape to any of 

 your horses without consulting you, not even flaxseed. A 

 very common custom is, in the spring, when new horses 

 come from the dealers, to give them a ball or two of flax- 

 seed, either whole or ground, in order to make them shed 

 quickly and look to the credit of the groom. This is all 

 wrong. I have known many fine horses ruined by it, their 

 pores are opened by such treatment, and cold and fevers 

 often follow to their lasting injury. A little salt now and 

 then, or clay, is all they want, with good care, regular 

 feeding, rubbing, and careful examination of their feet. 



ist. In the stable, the circulation of air should be good, 

 without a possibility of the horse being subjected to a 

 draught ; the common plan of a hole three or four inches 

 wide by six high immediately in front of him, so that a 



