Measures and Weights. 515 



OMNIBUS HORSES. 



The daily allowance of the London Omnibus Company's horses is to each seventeen 

 pounds of corn, chiefly maize, with ten pounds of meadow hay and clover cut into chaff— 

 the proportion of maize depending on its relative cheapness as compared with oats. 



HUNTERS. 



Twelve full-sized (seldom under and often over sixteen hands), hunters in Leicestershire, 

 each in first-class condition, will not consume more than twelve pounds of oats, two pounds 

 of beans, and six to eight pounds of the best hay daily. 



The bedding of a horse in a stable may be well done with two to three trusses of 

 straw per week. 



STABLE MEASURES AND WEIGHTS. 



Taking a bushel of oats to weigh 40 lbs. (They vary 36 to 42 lbs.) 



A quartern weighs ... ... ... ... ... ... 2j lbs. 



Four quarterns (not quarts) make a peck ... ... ... 10 lbs. 



Four pecks make a bushel ... ... ... ... ... 40 lbs. 



Four bushels make a sack (in Norfolk and Suffolk a coomb) ... 160 lbs. 



Eight bushels make a quarter... ... ... ... ... 320 lbs. 



Beans and maize average 60 lbs. a quarter. 



HAY AND STRAW. 



A load of old hay contains 36 trusses, each of 56 lbs., and weighs about 18 cwt. 

 A load of straw contains 36 trusses, each of 36 lbs., and weighs about 1 1 cwt. 6 lbs. 



EXERCISE. 



The best stables, the best food, and the best grooming, will not secure condition — that is, 

 the highest degree of horse-health — without sufficient and regular e.xercise. The degree will 

 depend on how long the horse has been in use. An animal fresh from grass must be brought 

 gently into work. Colonel Fitzwygram's rules for training four-year-olds, often nearer three 

 and a half years old, intended for troopers, fresh from the fields, give a good idea of the 

 principles of exercise : — " For the first month half an hour's walking exercise is sufficient ; for 

 the next month an hour, during which he may be longed, and taught to carry a saddle. In 

 the third month he may be ridden slowly for half an hour, and trotted another half hour. 

 From the fourth to the sixth one hour and a half ordinary work in the riding-school will 

 not be too much, and by the end of six months he will be fit for the regular work of a 

 troop horse." 



Horses five years old and upwards, used for riding or driving only (not hunting), should, 

 on the days they are not used, have not less than two hours' exercise for si.x days of the week 

 commencing about six o'clock in the morning, doing, if in a harness break, about twelve 

 miles, and if under saddle about ten miles ; walking and trotting at not more than six miles 

 an hour. 



The horses of ladies, and old or timid gentlemen, should be exercised soon after daybreak 

 in winter, and at six o'clock in summer, for at least one hour every day. 



Regular exercise is so important, that a shed or barn to be used for that purpose in in- 

 clement weather should always be erected or reserved for it ; and in town advantage should 



