40 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



in the course of the day upon an empty stomach, 

 when its entire digestive system is so quick that 

 the food is consumed in half an hour. Then it 

 has to work often from twelve to eighteen hours 

 without food or water. 



The grooms then wonder how the horse's diges- 

 tive system goes wrong. First it is smothered in 

 a hot, unhealthy, ill-ventilated stable ; then it is 

 either burst with food or starved. Sometimes the 

 blame does not lie at the door of the groom, but 

 with the master, who thinks he knows all about 

 horses, because he buys them, and will not allow 

 a groom to use his own discretion, and is after- 

 wards grieved to find that his horses are unable 

 to carry him through a hard run. That a horse 

 can run well after being well fed has often been 

 proved. When a boy, a friend of mine, a stud- 

 groom now in Leicestershire, went to Ireland for 

 Punchestown races with a horse called Oakstick. 

 The night before the race the lad had to sleep in 

 the loose box with the horse, which was tied up, 

 but during the night it managed to slip its head- 

 collar. The lad had brought a bushel of corn 

 with him, and at night brought a pail of water 

 into the stable for the morning's use, and being 

 very tired lay down upon a sack and fell asleep ; 

 the horse being awake and loose, amused itself 

 by eating nearly all the corn and drinking all the 

 water. When the lad awoke at about four o'clock 

 in the morning, the old horse was blown out like 

 a barrel. The lad was in a sad way, and hardly 

 knew what to do : however, he took the horse 

 out and walked it about for two or three hours, 



