44 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[chap. 



minutes is advisable, and one for a quarter of 

 an hour every two hours. A short halt should 

 be made fifteen minutes after starting to tighten 

 up girths and see to the correct fitting of harness 

 and saddlery, etc. At every halt the rider should 

 dismount and loosen his girths, if on a long 

 march. Every opportunity should be taken at 

 all times to allow the horse to drink and graze, 

 never forgetting that the horse has a very small 

 stomach. 



174. At every halt the horse's feet should be 

 examined for loss of or loose shoes, stones in the 

 shoe, etc. Dusty roads should be avoided, and 

 soft roads are always preferable to hard mac- 

 adam roads. If the dust is bad, horses must not 

 be allowed to follow closely behind each other, 

 because, if they do, they will be inhaling a 

 great deal of dust. 



Bits, of course, must be removed if horses 

 are given a full drink or when fed grain or hay. 

 If possible, it is best to avoid public troughs, and 

 to use a clean bucket from a tap. If on active 

 service, horses must always be watered and fed 

 when a chance offers itself, as later there may 

 be a scarcity of forage, grass or water. The 

 horse's stomach being small (one to two gallons), 

 it must be remembered that he should be fed in 

 small quantities, and, as his digestion is con- 

 tinuous (there being no gall bladder to store the 

 bile from the liver), he should be fed as often 

 as possible. 



175. On long marches compressed foods may 

 have to be carried, but unless bulky food, as 

 hay or grass, is given as well, horses will never 

 do well on such rations. Horses can be fed 

 grain from a box or more conveniently from a 

 nosebag. Care should be taken to adjust a nose- 

 bag properly. At first it must not be too tightly 

 buckled up, and later, as the horse eats its con- 

 tents, it must be buckled up higher. A box or 

 log on which to rest the nosebag is very con- 

 venient for the horse. Cavalry horses can be 

 cooled down very quickly while coming home 

 if they are made to move in column of sections 

 (fours), with ten or more feet distance, and ex- 

 tended as much as the width of the road will 

 allow. In crossing a field or common, each 

 section can extend to ten yards interval with 

 much benefit. Cavalry and artillery riders and 

 drivers are usually too severe with their horses 

 in the earlier part of the day, on service or on 

 manoeuvres, and by noon their horses are 

 fatigued : a sign of bad horsemanship and lack 

 of common sense. 



176. Everything should be done to keep up a 

 horse's spirits on a long trip. I remember, on 

 the trail in Alberta, how I used to whistle or 

 sing while going along alone with my horse. I 

 am sure it used to keep up his spirits — because 

 he had not a good ear, possibly. The horse likes 

 company and being spoken to. 



When a horse returns from a long trip or 



from work, as little time as possible should be 

 lost in getting to work on him. In South Africa 

 the Australian horsemen made themselves con- 

 spicuous by the way they would attend to their 

 horses before themselves. Upon arriving home, 

 girths should be loosened, harness removed, and 

 the legs well rubbed down. This increases the 

 circulation in the legs, which is, naturally, 

 weakest at a point farthest from the heart. 

 The legs must be rubbed up, against the coat 

 and in the direction of the flow of blood in 

 the veins ; the back must be rubbed against 

 the coat. 



On return from work, a horse must be 

 thoroughly groomed. A saddle should never be 

 removed directly, because, after the rider has 

 removed his weight, time must be allowed for 

 the small superficial blood-vessels under the 

 saddle to refill gradually. If this is neglected, 

 these vessels may become ruptured and cause 

 lumps to come up on the back. A great fault in 

 riding a long distance is to ride with stirrups 

 too long, and thereby cause great fatigue to the 

 horse. 



A man should not leave his horse, on return 

 from a hard day, to go and refresh himself until 

 he has properly cared for his horse. The old 

 saying, " What is not inspected is neglected," is 

 worth remembering, and applies very much to a 

 horse at work. 



177. Every opportunity should be taken to 

 relieve pack animals of their weight. The pack 

 should be taken off the saddle and the girth 

 loosened whenever possible. The maximum 

 weight for a mule, including the pack saddle, is 

 160 pounds. No part of the pack must touch the 

 animal, especially over the spine (vertebral 

 column). The weight must be evenly divided 

 on both sides, and not too far forward nor back. 

 It must be entirely taken on the side-bars and 

 arches of the saddle, the former resting on the 

 top portion of the animal's ribs. A mule shows 

 signs of pain very often by twitching his lips 

 and shows fatigue by drooping his ears. 



It should always be borne in mind that 

 Nature imposes limits on the strength of a horse, 

 which if exceeded will seriously endanger the 

 animal ; horses are not machines, and this fact 

 must never be forgotten. Every care should 

 always be taken to economise horseflesh, and 

 only when a crisis arises should the horse be 

 asked to perform abnormal work. 



Because a man is a good rider it does not 

 follow that he is a good horseman ; successful 

 horsemanship is a rare art, and should at least 

 be studied by every lover of horses. In no c-ase 

 is it so important as in that of a cavalry leader 

 on service, the whole efficiency of his arm 

 depending on his knowledge of horsemanship. 

 The results of the appalling examples of horse- 

 manship during the South African war are well 

 known, when over a third of a million horses 



