STABLING OF HORSES. 55 



remove, but a dropsical habit it is wished to amend. The 

 bowels do not contain too much nourisliment ; but dropsical 

 effusion, originatmg in weakness, has taken place. It is not 

 generally known, but it is perfectly true, that a horse can 

 be purged into the very state which the utmost want of 

 condition can represent. Perhaps, however, rather than 

 have all the trouble of getting an animal into condition, 

 after it has been turned to grass, it is the better and the 

 cheaper plan, though probably one which the groom who 

 loves idleness and excitement may not altogether approve, 

 to keep the horse at home, and never to allow him to sink 

 so low as to require so much labour to get him into condi- 

 tion again. 



SECTION VI. 



STABLING OF HORSES. 

 THE STABLE ITSELF. 



Stabling of every description is an evil. It is impossible a 

 stable should be so built that it will allow the animal one 

 half the freedom he enjoys when loose out of doors. Most 

 stables are built so as to aggravate their inseparable cruelty. 

 The flooring slants from the manger to a gutter, which runs 

 at the horse's heels. Now, if horses be in a field, and at 

 rest, they will always be seen standing upon a piece of 

 ground that declines in precisely the opposite direction. 

 The fact is, our modern stables throw the stress upon the 

 back sinews or flexor tendons, and thus prepare many an 

 animal for the injury he afterwards unexpectedly experiences. 

 Nor is this all : the stall is perfectly at variance with the 

 habits of the horse; he is evidently gregarious, or lives 

 among crowds of his fellow-creatures ; the stall dooms him 

 to solitude, and the groom sits behind to see he does not 

 put his nose over the divisions, only to look at a comrade. 

 In many stables the stall is so small that the horse cannot 

 turn round ; he can lie down perfectly at ease in very few ; 

 yet, there he stands, looking at a bare wall, with the stress 

 upon his back sinews, for a period varying from twenty to 

 twenty-three hours during the day. The horse, in any 

 condition beyond the dominion of man, is necessitated to 



