148 STABLE ECONOMY. 



wear down their shoes very fast, break the nails, and keep 

 their bed always in disorder. When the horse uses only 

 one foot in pawing, a clog may be put upon it similar to that 

 employed against kicking. It may be fastened to the pas- 

 tern, to the leg above the fetlock-joint, or above the knee- 

 joint. In general, that is the most successful which is attached 

 to the fetlock. The chain should be just long enough to let 

 the clog hang against the hoof. When the horse paws 

 equally with both feet, a clog may be placed on each, or the 

 two may be shackled together without clogs. 



Shackles, or fetters, are two straps, one for each pastern, 

 connected by a light chain ten or twelve inches long. The 

 last link at each extremity of this chain is triangular, for ad- 

 mitting the straps, which should be about twelve or fourteen 

 inches long, lined inside with soft leather or cloth, and so 

 broad that they can not cut the skin, from which the edges 

 are a little raised by the inside lining. These fetters are 

 objectionable ; they prevent the horse from lying down. 

 They are sometimes employed for other purposes than that 

 of preventing pawing. In the racing-stables, I believe, they 

 are occasionally applied to keep an irritable horse from 

 striking and wounding his legs while under the operations of 

 his groom, and they are sometimes put on horses when they 

 are turned out, to be retaken in an hour or two. 



Wasting the Grain. — Playful, lively horses, sometimes 

 waste a great deal of their oats. They seize a large mouth- 

 ful, look about while masticating, and suffer much of it to 

 drop among the litter. Often more than half of the feed is 

 lost. This may be partly prevented by giving a small quan- 

 tity at a time, by spreading it thinly over the bottom of the 

 manger, by shortening the halter-rein, and by placing the 

 horse in a remote stall, where nothing will attract his atten- 

 tion at feeding-time. Some waste the grain in another way. 

 They drive it out of the manger by a jerk of the muzzle. 

 The cross-spars, already spoken of, prevent this habit. 



Shying the Door. — While leaving or entering the stable, 

 the horse frequently gets a fright. The posts catch his hips 

 or some part of the harness, and besides being alarmed he is 

 sometimes seriously injured. After this has happened several 

 times to an irritable horse, he becomes somewhat unmanage- 

 able every time he has to go through a doorway. He ap 

 proaches it with hesitation, and when urged forward he 

 makes a sudden bound, so as to clear the passage at a leap 

 He is repeatedly injured by his own violence, and is ulti 



