64 FOOD AND EXERCISE. MOUNTING. [BOOK I. 



strength is capable of sustaining, would be found 

 most conducive to the best purposes of nature. 

 Her food should be of the first quality, and regular, 

 and, though full enough, need not be too much. 

 Occasionally, she may be off her feed, during the 

 " time," but she does not therefore require " phy- 

 sicking," nor coaxing to eat. Great care should 

 be taken that her body is emptied regularly, that 

 no derangement take place either way ; and that 

 if opening physic is required at all, a strong dose of 

 aloes is not in her case the best that can be pre- 

 scribed for that purpose, since they act mostly upon 

 the intestines lying immediately in the vicinity of 

 the foal. An opening draught or drench should be 

 substituted for the pill, as its operation begins 

 sooner *. 



A very general cause of mis-shapen limbs is the 

 placing upon younkers too great weights at first 

 mounting, whereby the houghs or the knees are 

 thrown together, particularly, when the animal is 

 constructed with the fore and hind legs dispro- 

 portioned to each other, as noticed at sections 9 and 

 10. S})lents and sprains are the inevitable conse- 

 quences of mounting colts, &c. too early in life ; 

 and hollow-back is oftener induced by this premature 



* Or, let the pill be divided into two or more parts, as spoken of 

 much at large in our " Grooms' Oracle," under the articles Physic 

 and Aloes. Here humanity shudders to think what destruction has 

 been dealt over the land by the two extensively spread impostures 

 necessarily castigated at page 2 ; happily for the third mentioned, 

 however, his volumes are innocent of extended sale. White knocked 

 them on the head. 



