The Stable Handbook 



alongside the horse now and again. But if the 

 distance is not more than ten miles, a steady six 

 mile an hour trot, that will take a horse to his own 

 stable door, is perhaps best, with, of course, 

 intervals of walking, which should always include 

 the last mile. The man with one horse should 

 also make short days. He should turn his back on 

 hounds at 3 p.m. 



If circumstances take him far from home, so 

 that the horse is late and the hours of absence 

 from the stable are long, it will generally be wise 

 to forego the next hunting day. The man with 

 one horse must recollect that if anything goes 

 wrong he loses his hunting altogether, while his 

 neighbour with a large stable need scarcely lose a 

 day. The former may comfort himself, however, 

 with the thought that one horse, hard worked and 

 well cared for, seldom does go wrong. In a small 

 stable where the horses are wanted to work, two 

 causes of equine ailments are absent — idleness and 

 over-feeding. Plenty of food and plenty of work 

 is the secret of health. Of course I am assuming 

 that the horse is not too young and in hard con- 

 dition. The poor man's hunter should work 

 nearly all the year round. 



I would throw him up at the end of the season 

 for a fortnight or three weeks, and then put him 

 to steady work in saddle or harness. But the pace 

 at which the work is done should be moderate, and 

 the road work not excessive in point of distance or 



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