5i6 TiJE Book of the Horse. 



be taken of subscription to a neighbouring riding-school. Grooms are but men ; they do not 

 like more trouble than they can help in cleaning up a muddy, sweating horse, and they are 

 impatient for their breakfast, so they may be expected to seize on any possible excuse for 

 not going out at all, or for cutting two hours down to one. A sportsman who was very par- 

 ticular about the condition of his horses always made one of the stable lads ring a bell that 

 communicated with his bedroom when they started and when they returned. This continued 

 as long as he was a bachelor ; but on getting married the lady objected to this kind of 

 matins, and it was observed that the hunters from Bullfinch Park lost their former reputation 

 for high condition at the commencement of the hunting season. 



The best fields for summer exercise are those that have been mown, because the ground has 

 been partly protected from the sun. Grain stubbles, where fields have been laid flat for thorough 

 drainage and deep cultivation, also afford good exercise ground. For winter, during frosts, a ride 

 should be made of litter, tan, sawdust, or whatever soft material is cheapest. 



A gentleman of moderate fortune, whose principal expense was his stud of six hunters, 

 adopted the following plan to secure two hours' exercise : — At six o'clock the grooms went to the 

 stable and gave each horse his water and less than half a feed of oats. While they were eating 

 this, a bowl of milk or cocoa and a hunch of bread was consumed by each groom. This allayed 

 the sharp pangs of hunger ; exercise followed until half-past eight, when the regular breakfast for 

 men and horses was ready for them. For he used to say, " It is a mistake to fight against nature." 



Old beans, strong strapping, slow exercise, and plenty of all three, are the road to hunting 

 condition. 



Finally, galloping exercise will only do harm to a horse not already made hard by degrees. 

 Condition once secured, it should be maintained, as long as a horse has health and sound legs, 

 by regular exercise. 



SUMMERING AND WINTERING HORSES. 



When a horse becomes stale he must be rested ; the question is whether to rest him in a loose 

 box or in a paddock. The old plan of turning horses out to grass is never practised with sound 

 horses by those who wish to have them in hard condition in November. Horses are more likely 

 to be rendered unsound by galloping about rich pastures, and lying down on hot days in ponds, 

 than by regular summer exercise or light harness work. 



One plan is to keep the horses in small paddocks — too small to gallop in — giving them corn 

 twice a day, and taking them up at night. If they are kept in loose boxes all the summer, and 

 supplied with green fodder as well as corn, they ought to be regularly dressed. To leave them, 

 as some great people do, in dirt, is to destroy more than half the advantage of rest. 



If a lame horse is wintered in an open yard it ought not, as is so commonly the case, to be 

 hock deep in muck. 



The advantage of a run in a small paddock, or a winter yard, lies no doubt in the effect 

 of fresh air on the constitution ; it is impossible to believe that an artificial animal like a valuable 

 horse can be benefited by living in a box ungroomed — in fact, in dirt. If any exact returns 

 were made of the number of horses which return from a summer's run on grass kicked, roarers, 

 and blind, as well as those that die of colic and inflammation of the lungs, people who have 

 stables and money enough to pay for corn would hesitate before turning horses in hard 

 condition out to grass from motives of economy. But even if corn be not given, the horse 

 sheltered from flies in summer and fed with good green food will be in better condition than 

 one turned out to grass, 



