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AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



PASTURING. 



The horse that is not allowed a run on pasture in the 

 spring is pretty sure to suffer in consequence. His condition 

 will be likely to continue bad for months; yet, such is the 

 invulnerability of Nature to the impressions of the most un- 

 favorable external influences, that perhaps he may speedily 



recover from the efi:ect8 of this de- 

 privation. But it can hardly fail to 

 come about that he will be more stu- 

 pid than otherwise, and he 9ften mani- 

 fests his desire for the open air and 

 sweet-scented grass by a restiveness 

 and whickering while in the stable, 

 and when out of doors by seizing 

 every lock of grass within his reach. 

 Pasture is the horse's natural food, as the open air is his 

 natural stable and home. The horse domesticated is a slave; 

 the stable is his prison ; the bridle and harness are his chains 

 and fetters; and much of his prepared food is unnatural, and 

 not to be really relished, except by an appetite depraved by 

 long habit. Even when pure, a great deal of his prepared 

 food is not healthy. Much of it is very heating to the blood, 



and possesses a strong tendency to 

 produce disease, so that very few 

 horses fed exclusively upon it can 

 be said to be entirely well. 



To all these evils pasture is an 

 antidote. It is both food and 

 medicine to the horse, and he is 

 hardly ever unwell when constantly at pasture. If he is cos- 

 tive, this will loosen his bowels ; if his digestion is bad, the 

 grass will regulate it ; if his coat is rough and staring, there 

 is the remedy ; if the skin is tight and the joints are stiff, the 

 grass will relax and loosen them — will cleanse the blood, open 

 the capillaries, send out the oily fluids to the surface, and 

 soon transform the poor jade into a fine horse, with glossy 

 coat and nimble limbs. 



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