76 TREATMENT OF HORSES 



he was put into the loose place, it would be 

 needful to pay any further attention to his 

 feet until the time arrived for his being shod, 

 when, on examining the horse's feet, at the end 

 of three months, it is mostly found that they are, 

 from want of being repeatedly attended to, in a 

 very diseased state, the frogs of them occa- 

 sionally being so undermined, as to have little or 

 no horny substance left, and the feet in all 

 })robability much contracted. These are ge- 

 nerally the bad effects arising from horses' feet 

 being neglected, at the time of their stand- 

 ing in the rough in such loose places as are 

 not sufficiently often cleaned out, and which 

 may in some instances be the case even 

 up to the' present day. Let us, by way of exam- 

 ple, suppose, that two or three craving horses 

 have returned from their summer's running to 

 the home stable of a racing establishment, and 

 that those horses, to put up flesh and get fresh, 

 are put to stand, for the period already mention- 

 ed, in loose stables, either in their clothes and 

 regularly dressed, or stripped and kept in the 

 rough, whichever may be thought, according 

 to circumstances, to be the most advantageous. 

 The last-mentioned way of keeping those crav- 

 ing horses that mav have been more abused 

 than others, is to be preferred, to their going out 



