GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF HORSES 17 



pay too much attention to all matters connected with 

 horses ; their grooming, their housing, and their manage- 

 ment in various other ways. A conscientious horse 

 keeper will spare neither time nor labour, within reason- 

 able limits, upon the animals placed under his care, and 

 he should always be present when horses are being fed 

 and watered, to see that each member of the stud receives 

 its proper share of forage and water. It is quite an easy 

 matter to see whether horses are thriving or otherwise. 

 Never purchase forage already mixed, i.e. corn and chaff, 

 bran, etc., combined, because it so often happens that the 

 individual components of a forage mixture are distinctly 

 inferior in quality, or at any rate good, bad, and in- 

 different materials are frequently used in this manner. 



Grooming 



The grooming appliances, plus the elbow grease 

 supplied by the strapper, plus the condition of a horse in 

 relationship to physical vigour, constitute the skin food 

 of this animal for the essentials of grooming. There are 

 grooms and those which call themselves grooms, but 

 there is a vast difference between the two. One can 

 make a horse look well, but the other never. It is quite 

 an easy matter, both by sense of touch and by eyesight, 

 to note whether a horse is groomed, indifferently groomed, 

 or not groomed at all. Want of energy and a dread of 

 work are the chief causes of the two last named. A 

 groom must be energetic and ambitious, active and 

 willing, conscientious and painstaking, and have a special 

 love for horses. Under these circumstances he is bound 

 to succeed and, as already stated, he is a groom, as 

 opposed to the fictitious article. There is a popular notion 

 that any man can groom a horse and can take up the 

 work at a moment's notice. Those who had any experi- 

 ence with horses in the Army during the recent war 

 know perfectly well how ludicrous this is. A groom must 



