BOOK I. and Expert F err kr. x^ 



fter : befides the ufe thereof will make their hoofs more tough, 

 durable and hollow^ infomuch as when they fhall come to be 

 (hod, and to have exercife, they will carry their fhoes much 

 longer, better, and with more eafe than otherwife, if they 

 had been ufed to a planked flore. 



Now on the contrary part, which concerueth the planked ^'^^ '"; 

 flore,that (I fay) cannot in reafon be fo good by many degrees. ^n^^T 

 Firit, it is more flippery, out of which reafon a mettled horfe g pjanked 

 may foon be .in danger to be lamed or fpoiled, by fome fudden flore. 

 flip, whereof I have had often experience, which a pitched i. 

 liable is not fofubjedtunto. Secondly, the planks oftentimes 2. 

 fhrinking, the Horfe (efpecially if he be a ftirrier who is ac- 

 cuftomed to curvet in the ftable) may cafily break a plank, and 

 his foot getting into a hole, or between the planks, the Horfe 

 plunging and ftriving, mayeaftly break his leg before he ihall 

 be able to get it forth, whereof I have more than once been o- 

 chImus tepis : Thirdly, when you put forth your Horles to run 3» 

 at grafs, all or the moft; part of Summer, during which time 

 the fcorching heats will fo exiccate and dry the planks, which 

 will caufe them to warp, and the pins which hold them down 

 to the joylts will rot •, snd fo the planks give way, efpecially 

 when horles ( who not being handled in fome moneths before ) 

 becoming wild, ramraageand unruly, are newly brought into 

 the liable-, who feeling the planks to move, yield and give way 

 under them, will rail from ftarting thereat, to flinging, leap- 

 ing,bounding and pjunging,till they have diflocatcd the planks, , 

 and thereby haye endangered both themlelves, the reJidue of 

 their Fellows, and thole who might come to their help and fuc- 

 courj which is a thing very frequent in a flore of this nature: 

 Fourthly, whereas you may imagine that a planked flore is ^., 

 warmer than a paved or pitched, I do know the contrary ; for 

 your pitched flore hath novaults,or channels under them,like as . 

 hathyour planked, wherewith to convey the. water which paflcth 

 from the Horfes : by which means the horielyeth over a moift 

 and dampifh place and vault , and befides that, the evil favour 

 of the Horle-pifs will be evermore in their nole, wiiichismofl 

 unwholfbme, noyfome, and many cimes the cai e of much in- 

 firmity ; neither can it in reafon be, fb warm as is the pitched ? 

 flore, for that the chinks and awger-holes bored through the 



planks.^ 



