CHAPTER III. 



STABLES. 



PRUDENCE, no less than humanity, should induce every man 

 who owns horses to do his best for them. If they are fit and 

 well they will do their work with comfort and satisfaction alike 

 to themselves and their master. By common care a score of 

 ills which afflict horseflesh may be avoided ; but common care 

 is an uncommon thing in many establishments. Horses get 

 ' out of sorts ' as men do, except that in the latter case the fault 

 is usually with the sufferer, whereas in the case of the horse it 

 is with a careless, ignorant master, or a servant who develops 

 his master's qualities. The horse owner who knows nothing 

 of horses is in a false position, especially when he depends 

 upon a servant who knows little more, or who has prejudices 

 and absurd traditions which do as much mischief as sheer ignor- 

 ance. A horse may often look well in himself when he is really 

 not well able to do his work. A large majority of stables, for 

 instance, are a great deal too hot. Grooms like to keep them 

 so because when living in such an atmosphere the horses' coats 

 look beautifully smooth and glossy, and layers of fat which the 

 uneducated eye mistakes for muscle are perceptible. The groom 

 is pleased, the ignorant owner delighted ; but in spite of appear- 

 ance the horses are constantly going wrong. They catch cold ; 

 they do not clean out their mangers, and are knocked up when 

 an effort is demanded. They stop in the middle of a run while 

 other horses with rougher coats go steadily on, and their owners 

 are sorely puzzled. 



The truth is that they pass their days and their nights in an 



