58 STABLING OF HORSES. 



be so good as to admit of no improvement as a general 

 rule, though of course individual cases will require varieties 

 in treatment. 



While in this place it may be as well to mention sum- 

 mering hunters. Mr. Blaine thus speaks of the effects 

 of turning out : " But a more critical examination of 

 the subject, and the collation of facts, will perhaps set the 

 matter in rather a different point of view. It has long been 

 observed that a horse that has been stabled for many years, 

 and then turned out to grass, seldom thrives ; on the con- 

 trary, he usually loses flesh and condition, although the 

 pasture in which he is placed may be of the most luxuriant 

 kind. It has been noticed also, by intelligent trainers, that 

 race-horses, after being turned out, never again fully recover 

 that speed they had previously exhibited. It is likewise 

 equally remarked on, that in hunters which have been com- 

 pletely summered abroad, it has been found very difficult, 

 and often impossible, to restore them to their full condition 

 until much of the hunting season has passed by." 



There are gentlemen, however, who imagine they are 

 acting with great generosity towards the animal which has 

 carried them w^ell through the hunting season, when they 

 determine their dumb servant, after the fatigues of the field, 

 shall enjoy a long rest in a loose box during the summer. 

 Can there be any greater folly than this? Let any man try 

 it upon himself. A rest of six months or more is an 

 impossibility. It is positive stagnation, and the poor horse 

 which is forced to undergo it must feel rejoiced when the 

 hunting season even once more commences. 



A better plan is to stable the horse ; to endeavour to 

 maintain as far as possible the condition at which he has 

 arrived ; to hack him gently, taking him for a slow ride 

 daily, and choosing shady lanes with grass on either side 

 for the exercise ; never to remove the shoes under the idea 

 of freeing the feet, but to keep on that which the animal 

 has become accustomed to. Mr. Blaine bears evidence to 

 the advantage of some such plan in the following words ; 

 and he is a writer whose veracity has never been questioned. 



" It is said that the Earl of Plymouth first tried the plan of 

 summering his hunters altogether within the stable, with 

 little variation in their treatment ; by which it is asserted 



