280 STABLE ECONOMY. 



A winter's keep in the straw-yard is going a good deal out 

 of fashion, at least with people not themselves proprietors of 

 such a place ; but it is still too common. The horse is no* 

 wanted till spring, or perhaps some lameness requires rest foi 

 two or three months, and, as he can be kept in a straw-yard 

 at little cost, to that place he is sent, abandoned to neglect, 

 and frequently to treatment worse than neglect. He returns 

 home a skeleton ; he has a cough, which is cured with diffi- 

 culty, or not at all ; his feet are destroyed by thrushes ; his 

 skin is covered by lice, and his bowels are full of worms. 



When the horse must be sent to such a filthy place, he needs 

 neither physic nor bleeding. However lusty, he will require 

 all the blood and flesh he can carry before winter expires. 

 The only preparation he requires refers to the feet and to 

 temperature. The frogs should be coated with pitch or tar. 

 If very thrushy, they should be covered with leather soles well 

 stopped up. The horse should be well inured to cold. He 

 needs more preparation than when going to grass ; a straw- 

 yard does not demand, nor permit, the exercise which a pas- 

 tured horse must take. When he returns he must be treated 

 in nearly the same way as after a winter's run at grass. More 

 time is necessary to confer working condition ; and greater 

 care regarding hot stables. Some treatment will probably be 

 requisite to remove lice, and to expel worms. 



Every straw-yard should have a covered shed, dry and clean. 

 It should have a constant supply of water, which should be 

 entirely changed every day, and placed in elevated troughs, 

 that it may not receive the evacuations. The fodder should 

 be placed in racks under cover, and the owner should visit his 

 horse every now and then. 



