WINTERING PONIES. 151 



treatment, the best thing for his general health, and 

 for the soundness of his legs and feet, is to turn him 

 out to grass for September and October, during which 

 months the grass will be still growing and the dews 

 will be heavy. For that time, supposing the grass is 

 plentiful, he will do all the better for having no corn or' 

 hay, unless he is old (especially if he has not been 

 turned out the previous autumn), delicate, or, if a 

 foreigner, unacclimatised, in which cases he may get a, 

 couple of feeds of corn daily. The owner should see 

 that the supply of grass is plentiful and good, and 

 should remember that the larger the run is, the better. 

 If the fields or paddocks are small, he should arrange 

 to have the pasture grounds changed from time to 

 time. He should on no account try the dangerous 

 experiment of leaving the ponies to the tender mercies 

 of an ordinary farmer, who, generally, has other work 

 to attend to, is short handed, and is not well acquainted 

 with the requirements of valuable horseflesh. 



Having given our ponies a two months' run at grass, 

 we have next to decide what to do with them in the 

 winter. We must remember that ponies, as a rule, 

 are hardier, sounder, and less liable to go wrong in 

 their wind than big horses, and that they do well in 

 the open, no matter how cold it may be, provided they 

 have plenty of good grass to eat, and enough space in 

 which to roam freely about. At the same time we 

 must bear in mind that our ultimate object is to have 

 our ponies perfectly fit by the ist of April. We are 

 here placed in a different position to that which we 

 occupied six months previously, when deciding the 

 question of summering our hunters, which we were 

 able, if we had chosen, to bring gradually into work 



