536 HISTORY OF THE 



may be given several times a week, mixed with the 

 corn. 



All strange messes and drinks, formerly so 

 commonly in use in the training stables, and for par- 

 ticulars of which we refer our readers to the works 

 of veterinarians published in the last century and 

 a few in the early part of this, are now entirely 

 exploded, being universally admitted to be as in- 

 jurious to the horse as they are unnatural. 



We now come to green food, which as the prac- 

 tice of turning out race horses has been generally 

 discontinued, is now given in the stable. In 

 1828 we find Mr. Darvill deprecating the 

 practice of turning out either race horses or 

 hunters* — a doctrine now generally admitted and 

 followed. 



The descriptions of green food given to " stale" 



* The following is the passage we have alluded to above : " When 

 race horses are once taken into training, they should be kept in the 

 stables both summer and winter until they have completed their 

 running. If turned out for three or four months, as hunters usually 

 are, (but which, by the bye, is very injudicious, as I have often known 

 those with large carcasses come up with very bad, and sometimes 

 incurable coughs,) they would doubtless get rid of the staleness 

 arising from the work they have done. Their constitutions would no 

 doubt be much refreshed by the beneficial effects of the pure air and the 

 green food, provided the season were dry, and the paddocks not too 

 large. Their legs and feet would be also much benefitted : the former 

 from the gentle exercise they would give themselves in this natural 

 state, and the latter from the soft surface of the ground. Yet these 

 advantages are more than counter balanced by the mischief which at 

 times results, &c. 



