38 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



" Whoever would be convinced of the benefit of friction to 

 the horse's skin and to the horse generally, needs only to ob- 

 serve the effects produced by well hand-rubbing the legs of a 

 tired horse. While every enlargement subsides, and the pain- 

 ful stiffness disappears, and the legs attain their natural warmth 

 and become fine, the animal is evidently and rapidly reviving ; 

 he attacks his food with appetite, and then quietly lies down 

 to rest." 



4. Exercise. Of this the farm horse generally has enough. 

 His work is tolerably regular, not exhausting, and he generally 

 maintains his health and has his life prolonged to an extent 

 rare among horses of " leisure." But a gentleman's or a trades- 

 man's horse suffers a great deal more from idleness than he 

 does from work. A stable-fed horse should have two hours' 

 exercise every day, if he is to be kept free from disease. Noth- 

 ing of extraordinary, or even of ordinary, labor can be effected 

 on the road or in the field without sufficient and regular exercise. 

 It is this alone which can give energy to the system or devel- 

 ope the powers of any animal. The animal that, with the 

 usual stable feeding, stands idle for three or four days, as is the 

 case in many establishments, must suffer. He is predisposed to 

 fever, or to grease, or, most of all, to diseases of the foot ; and 

 if, after three or four days of inactivity he is ridden far and 

 fast he is almost sure to have inflammation of the lungs or of 

 the feet. 



YIII VICES AND BAD HABITS. 



The vices and bad habits of the horse, like those of his mas- 

 ter, are oftener than otherwise the consequence of a faulty ed- 

 ucation. We are convinced that innately vicious horses are 

 comparatively few. We condense from Youatt the following 

 hints on this subject. 



1. Restiveness. At the head of all the vices of the horse is 

 restiveness, the most annoying and the most dangerous of all. 

 It is the produce of bad temper and worse education; and, 

 like all other habits founded on nature and stamped by edu- 

 cation, it is inveterate. Whether it appears in the form of 



