58 THE HORSE: ITS KEEP AND MANAGEMENT. 



There is another mistake which I think many people 

 make. When horses stand in the stable all day, the 

 custom is to bed them down with straw at night, then in 

 the morning after the stable has been cleaned out, the 

 straw is either taken away, or put under the manger, and 

 the horses have to stand all day. Occasionally a young 

 horse will lie down on the bare bricks or floor, but it is 

 very seldom old horses will, as they know the danger of 

 getting up when once they are down. 



Now my idea is always to bed a horse down in the 

 daytime, to induce it to lie down, rather than encourage 

 it to stand. I find that the more a horse rests his body 

 in lying down, the longer the legs last. For instance, I 

 have a cob at the present time, an engraving of 

 which forms the frontispiece, which I have driven 

 nearly seven years. Five years he did from twenty to fifty 

 miles in a day, never having a rest except on Sunday. If I 

 took the horse on a journey, whatever stable I put him in 

 I always had him bedded down in the day-time, just the 

 same as he was when at home. Between his feeds he 

 would lie down, and I found he did just the same away from 

 home. 



When horses are on a journey, if they can lie down 

 an hour or two in the day, it is a very great help to them. 

 It is the same when a man goes a long walk, he rests much 

 better when he lies down than w^hen he stands. I know it 

 is not the rule for horses to lie down in the middle of the 

 day in a strange stable, because they have never been 

 accustomed to it. A horse will stand in the stable more 



