IN FROSTY WEATHER. 125 



The different advantages derived from the use 

 of a straw bed, in a paddock such as has been 

 described, are, that the horses may do their exer- 

 cise and sweats with some degree of safety during 

 the continuance of a frost; and should it continue 

 for a long period, as until about the middle of 

 March, and perhaps no signs then of its imme- 

 diately breaking up, under those circumstances 

 may be given, to assist in lightening the bodies 

 and cooling the legs of some of the strong glut- 

 tonous horses, a couple of doses of physic, which 

 the groom may or ought to have kept in reserve, 

 as we have elsewhere advised. If matters are 

 arranged as we have directed, the horses will be 

 kept from becoming too much loaded in their 

 muscular system, and the tendons of their legs, 

 from the exercise they have continually been 

 taking, will retain their strength and tone. The 

 only thing the horses will be deficient in will 

 be wind; but when the frost breaks, and they 

 have to go again on to the downs, this deficiency 

 is soon remedied by the brushing gallops they 

 will have to take to prepare them for their 

 sweats here. 



We have said, by way of example, that the 

 frost sets in on the fifteenth of February, and we 



