270 THE HORSE 



movable arm can often be hidden away in a recess in the 

 wall, and the opening so secured that no animal can get at 

 it when it is not in use. 



Exercise. 



Nothing is more important for the well-being of a horse 

 than daily exercise, the amount of which must depend upon 

 the work it is likely to be called upon to perform, and the 

 condition in which it is in. The object sought is to get the 

 muscles and tendons firm, and to keep them so, and also to 

 have the lungs able to undergo long and possibly violent 

 exertion without evil consequences ensuing, for which pur- 

 pose trotting and walking for two hours should as a rule be 

 the means employed. When horses are taken up after the 

 summer, and have not had a weight on their backs for some 

 months, an hour is quite long enough for the first week, 

 increasing to two hours in the second week, and only trot- 

 ting for very short periods at a time. In a month the animal 

 should be capable of doing much longer work, and at least 

 twice a week should be kept out from three to four hours, 

 with an occasional short canter. But every case must be 

 studied by itself, a gross, heavy horse requiring a longer 

 period before commencing fast work than will a wiry, light- 

 bodied one. Physic is a necessity on recommencing work 

 after a long period of idleness, and at the end of a fortnight 

 a second dose will probably be required, the symptoms call- 

 ing for it being the filling of all the legs ; and at any time 

 when such is observed to be a daily occurrence, the adminis- 

 tration of a dose of physic is usually followed by satisfactory 

 results. 



Condition can only be attained by long-continued exercise, 

 and herein lies the supreme objection against summering 

 horses in loose boxes. When put into work again the muscles 

 are in such a flabby condition, and have so lost tone, that it 

 takes weeks longer to get horses from loose boxes ready for 

 hunting than when they have been turned out to grass. It 

 has been reckoned that a horse at grass travels about twenty 

 miles daily, and it will be noticed that when they have 



