ON PHYSIC. 123 



pull about, and amuse themselves with ; many of them 

 will eat it, when in physic, in preference to any thing 

 else. 



On opening the stables in the morning, the day 

 the physic is to be worked ofi", as soon as the boys 

 have set the beds fair, and brought them sufficiently 

 back for the horses to purge on, each boy may then 

 put two or three plats in his horse's tail, and tie it 

 round at the bottom, to prevent it from becoming 

 soiled whenever the horse purges. The whole of the 

 horses should now have their warm water, each being 

 allowed to drink as much as he likes ; after which, 

 they should be brushed over and got ready for exercise. 

 They are to be comfortably clothed, according to the 

 season of the year. In the autumn or spring, they 

 should have good full-sized blanket-sort of rugs next 

 to their skin, with a sheet and quarter piece on top ; 

 if there is much wind out, a breast sweater may be put 

 on, to keep their clothes down in front, and their 

 quarter strings should also be put on, to keep them 

 from blowing up behind ; or, what perhaps is to be 

 preferred, is a piece of binding attached to the hinder 

 part of the sheet or quarter piece, so arranged as to 

 form a sort of crupper, to go under the horse's tail. 

 The bridle and the hood should be put on each horse 

 as he is standing in the stall, with his head to the rack. 

 If a horse is bi-ought round in the usual way, for the 

 purpose of having those things put on, he may purge 

 in the manger if his physic has begun to work. Each 

 boy should be made to back his horse out of the stall, 

 when he is going out to exercise. 



