342 GROOMS. 



course^ not named. These are done between the more important duties. 

 But, as a general division of the labor, a good groom should always 

 mate the horse the primary consideration. Thus, the fore part of the 

 day is entirely spent upon the quadruped, upon the harness, and upon 

 the vehicle; while the afternoon (where such an arrangement be pos- 

 sible) is devoted to the employer or to the stable, and to those small 

 matters which always demand attention. 



A better division of the feeding is, to withhold the nine o'clock por- 

 tion, and to give it at two o'clock in the early morning; for as the horse 

 delights in comparative darkness, and is by nature formed to be hungry 

 and active after sunset, man certainly would gain by following the plan 

 which best accords with the animal's instinct. Thus horses, being ob- 

 served when in the field, will invariably be seen either resting or sleeping 

 during the hot hours of the afternoon. The cool of the evening, conse- 

 quently, would be a better time for enforcing exercise than the period 

 when, according to existing customs, it is generally administered. In 

 private establishments, however, many of the latter proposals would be 

 attended with inconvenience ; but the author can imagine no household 

 in which the ten o'clock feed and the evening exercise might not be 

 undertaken, and, in several public companies, everything here suggested 

 could be accomplished. The morning's exercise should likewise be given 

 before the day becomes hot or the light is fully confirmed. Then the 

 quadruped is braced by the spirit of the hour, not render"fed miserable by 

 the heat and annoyed by the stings of innumerable insects. 



The only peculiarity in the above regulations consists in the length of 

 time over which the feeding and the exercising are distributed. The 

 ordinary day of most stables lasts only eleven or twelve hours. The 

 author makes the period to extend over sixteen hours. His reasons for 

 so doing are twofold : in the first place, the horse is by nature formed 

 to enjoy the night much more than it is made capable of roaming during 

 the day; in the second place, the author never dissected the carcass of 

 an aged animal without finding the capacity of the stomach morbidly 

 enlarged, and the walls of the viscus rendered dangerously thin by re- 

 peated distention. The manner in which the small digestive bag of the 

 quadruped must be overloaded, by the usual plan of cramming five full 

 meals into twelve hours, accounts for the latter characteristic, and also 

 explains why indigestion should rank among the most fearful and the 

 commonest malady which attends upon domestication. 



The curry-comb is abolished ; but the generality of grooms also re- 

 quire to be cautioned concerning the use of the wisp and the brush. 

 The first article is generally brought down upon the sides with a succes- 

 sion of heavy blows. Now, beating is not cleaning; neither is one act 



