72 TREATMENT OF HORSES 



was opened, the fumes arising from the pu- 

 trefaction of the accumulated manure issued 

 forth as if from a boiler of hot water. The 

 groom going with me on occasional mornings to 

 look at the horse, I presumed that he observed 

 what I have above stated, and at last he no 

 doubt saw the impropriety of allowing the stable 

 to remain any longer in so unhealthy a state, 

 as he ordered that it should be immediately 

 cleaned out, and which I very w'ell remember 

 gave two or three of us boys a very long job. 

 At the time the circumstance occurred to which 

 I have been alluding, I was too young and too 

 thoughtless to trouble myself more about my 

 horse's feet, either in a stall stable or loose place, 

 than the trifling orders of the groom obliged me 

 to do, so that I neither picked out nor washed 

 my horse's feet, that I remember, during the 

 time he had been standing as I have above 

 described; the consequence of which was, his 

 feet were in a very bad state. 



But the cause of horses' feet getting thus out of 

 order, when they have been kept in the rough in 

 such loose places as may not have been sufficiently 

 often cleaned out, should not at all times be attri- 

 buted to any want of attention on the part of 



