70 TREATMENT OF HORSES 



places it is intended they shall winter in, as they 

 are most likely very stale in themselves, as well 

 as on their legs ; and if they should have plenty 

 of flesh on them, but certainly not otherwise, it 

 may be advisable to give them a couple or three 

 doses of physic each to cool them. After the 

 effects of the medicine are subsided, they should 

 gradually be stripped of their standing clothes. 

 Their feet, which are mostly in a bad state, 

 should be examined and properly attended to 

 once in three weeks (See Vol. 1, Chap. 22, on the 

 Treatment of Feet and on Shoeing). Horses, 

 such as above described, being thus prepared, 

 should, with a collar on each of their heads, be 

 turned loose into a clean, well-littered, and well- 

 ventilated loose place ; here they should each re- 

 main in what is called the rough, that is, there is 

 no necessity for either dressing or exercising them; 

 they generally take care to give themselves quite 

 enough of the latter to keep them in health, 

 either by their walking, trotting, or, not unfre- 

 quently, cantering round their loose places. Such 

 of those horses as may have been running in 

 summer until late in the autumn should be al- 

 lowed to remain at rest until the month of March, 

 before they are taken again into training, as it is 

 hardly to be expected they can be brought out in 



