56 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



drugging. I may say that my own system 

 left physic very much out of the reckoning ; and 

 I very rarely gave a horse physic on throwing 

 him up for the summer — never, indeed, unless 

 I was thoroughly convinced that he was ailing. 



Summering horses in the house is attended 

 with one inconvenience. It is difficult to per- 

 suade grooms to give them little enough corn, 

 and they want looking after to keep the stables 

 clean. I prefer the ordinary loose box to the 

 box and yard because it is easier to keep the 

 horse off wet litter, and there is also less waste 

 of straw. 



The corn ration should certainly be reduced 

 one-half and a peck of oats per day is ample 

 allowance for any horse that is doing no work. 

 But if the quantity of corn is reduced the quality 

 should be maintained, for it must always be 

 remembered that there is more nutriment in a 

 small feed of good oats than in a large feed of 

 moderate ones. 



The quantity of hay should be reduced but 

 the quality should be maintained. New hay 

 should never be given. By new hay is meant 

 anything that is not more than a year old. The 

 giving of green meat is necessary in summer 

 time but it should not be given in such quantities 

 as to make the horse pot-bellied. It is intended 

 to cool the system and should be given for a few 

 weeks only. Clover is the best form in which 

 it can be given and it is all the better if a little 

 ryegrass is in it — ^the mixture indeed, which is 



