CHAP. VII. MANAGEMENT OF HORSES. 455 



even more pernicious than to let the animal remain in the state in 

 which he comes from work. 



The hoofs should be occasionally oiled and stopped. For the latter 

 purpose cow-dung is an application in common use. Clay hardens, 

 and, soon becoming dry, heats and otherwise injures the hoof; but the 

 common felt stopping, now sold by all saddlers, is far neater, and quite 

 as effectual when merely wetted. The feet require more care than is 

 usually bestowed upon them in farm stables, and scarcely anything 

 occasions them more injury than the reprehensible practice of letting 

 horses stand upon soiled litter until it ferments ; and the common, but 

 very mistaken economy, of not shoeing sufficiently often. 



Some persons go into the opposite extreme in the first respect, and 

 keep their horses standing the whole of the day upon the bare stones, 

 the litter being thrown up under the manger; but, the pavement of 

 stables being often laid in too slanting a direction the horses are 

 placed in an unnatural position, which strains and injures the muscles 

 of the legs, while the pungent effluvia of the litter ascend more readily 

 to the eyes and to the racks, and the foundation is laid of blindness. 

 The slope of the paving of the stall should not exceed three inches in 

 nine feet. If litter is too scarce to allow of that part which has 

 become saturated with urine being thrown into the farm-yard, it 

 should at least be carried out and dried, every morning when the 

 weather will permit of it, and a little fresh straw laid for the horse to 

 stand on. 



The state of the bowels should be constantly attended to, and when 

 hard meat is given it is an excellent practice to allow a cold bran mash 

 every Saturday night. If, also, on that day the field labour were 

 abridged an hour or two, and the time devoted to cleaning and oiling 

 the harness, it would not be thrown away. The stable should be kept 

 not only clean, but sweet; and fresh air should be constantly admitted, 

 for the horse has a strong dislike to every offensive smell ; besides 

 this, the pungency of the vapour arising from fermented litter occasions 

 injury to the eyes as well as general disease. Powdered gypsum 

 strewn over the floor is said to absorb some portion of the ammonia 

 arising from the litter, and save the animals much annoyance, and Mr. 

 Richardson recommends, as a speedy and effectual disinfectant where 

 the fumes of the ammonia are very pungent, that a shallow dish of 

 muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid, spirits of salt) be set in the stable. 1 

 But a more simple and equally efficacious means of absorbing, or 

 deodorising, this pungent gas, has been suggested, viz., the making 

 two small excavations, about ten or twelve inches deep, one at the 

 centre and one at the end of the stall, and three parts filling them with 

 powdered peat charcoal, which attracts and absorbs the ammoniacal gas, 

 and when saturated forms an exceedingly efficient manure, especially 

 for flowers. 2 The interior of stables should be lime-washed twice a 

 year, all, that is, save the wood work, and this should be well 

 scrubbed with a brush, soap and warm water being employed. If 



1 Richardson on the Breeding, Management, and Varieties of Horses. 



2 The Times, August 7, 1851. 



