HORSES. 109 



the country to be turned out ; particularly in the autumn, when 

 ihe weather first changes to cold, and he is changing his coat ! If 

 any person will go into a large livery stable in Boston, in May. be- 

 fore the windows are taken out for the summer, when the doors 

 are opened at daybreak, he will find, that though he cannot remain 

 an instant in it himself, the horses have been quietly sleeping, 

 sometimes two in a stall, their own breath and effluvia chiedy con- 

 fined to their contracted stalls, their nostrils the farthest possible 

 from the air, that they are most of them in good health, and some 

 in high condition. After the efiorts nature must have made to 

 bear this, will she instantly retrace her steps ? That she will, is 

 defended and acted upon by persons who think they understand 

 horse-flesh. To such persons, 1 would quote, if I had the book, 

 the words of Vegetius. who wrote in the reign of Valentinian. when 

 the world was interested in horse-flesh, and who calls turning 

 horses out at all seasons a Hunnish practice. He wrote for the 

 climate of Syria and Spain. The benefit to a horse of regular 

 work and nourishing food increases his powers for years in succes- 

 sion. He appears to grow thicker. A particular kind of horse, 

 who, to use such an expression, carries his work in his leg? and his 

 carcass, and not in any original goodness of his own, a stage- 

 coach proprietor must frequently notice this fact in ; and he is 

 the most valuable horse he can get. I mean a horse, naturally 

 of moderate powers of performance for a single day, but who has 

 a deep carcass, with an insensible foot, and consequently has open 

 to him a chance of receiving the highest degree of improvement to 

 be derived from a succession of years of strong focd and strong ex- 

 ercise, 



2. As to how he should be confined in the stable. The univer- 

 sal practice in Massachusetts, as in most other places, is to tie him 

 in a narrow stall with his fore feet higher Uian his hind ones, in 

 so lie stables the declivity is ver_y cor.siderahle. It is my opiiiion, 

 that if there must be a declivity, it should I)e forwards. A horse 

 worked every day on a fast trot over a hard road, as a coach-horse, 

 suffers enough in his fore feet when he is sound. One of the first 

 signs of incipient disease in them, or rather of the crowded state 

 whi( h precedes disease, is his throwing his weight as much as he 

 can on his hind legs. I am inriined to doubt the fact of his pre- 

 ferring to stand up hill under such circumstances. One reason for 

 such an opinion is, the manner in which his weight is thrown on 

 his toes when he stands up hill, even if his heels are raised. An- 

 other gieat disadvantage of his standing so is, that he throws the 

 whole weight of his forehand upon the same muscles and tendons 

 he uses most in draught. It is cei'tainly of importance, that if he 

 must have an unnatural strain any where when he is not at work, 

 it should not be where the strain must be when he is. ft is a vast 

 comfort to a horse to be kept in a box. He should be able to 

 choose his own position, at least to sleep in, and relieve what 

 muscles he wishes to. In a stall he must sleep, through life, with 

 Isis head h(;ld in the air, and his legs under his body. His getting 



