160 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



and a couple of glasses of gin in it; this will 

 stimulate his appetite ; give him a cool but not 

 cold mash, as soon as he will eat it ; put him in the 

 box, bed him up, and let him lie down as soon as 

 possible ; he will be stiff and tired to-morrow ; 

 just let him stretch his legs, led in hand, about 

 midday, and next day he will be as well as ever/^ 



" I will now give you a hint as to bleeding a 

 horse after exertion, which should never be done 

 without great caution. If after a long and severe 

 day your horse shows symptoms of great distress, 

 producing great palpitation, very quickened pulsa- 

 tion, a hot mouth, inflamed eyes, and every in- 

 dication of coming fever, bleeding is quite proper, 

 and bleed just in such quantity as lowers the 

 pulsation to its proper beat, and quiets the pal- 

 pitation brought on from over-excitement of the 

 general system; but to bleed a horse merely 

 because nature is in a temporary state of exhaus- 

 tion, is only exhausting it still more for no j)ur- 

 pose, and preventing his energies rallying as they 

 would do of their own accord simply by rest, 

 which is all the grey wants. 



" Such horses seldom hurt : the fact is, their 

 powers, or game, or whatever it may be, will not 

 last long enough to bring the internal organs into 

 a state likely to end in serious inflammation, their 

 legs and spirits tire before the system is under 

 excitement long enough to produce danger.^^ 



