102 PUTTING INTO CONDITION. 



for an hour' s walk, both morning and evening, giving 

 some of the grain boiled every other night ; this, 

 when a horse is idle, or only at ordinary riding, be- 

 ing the chief part of the secret in keeping that plump 

 appearance over the quarter : but, if even for upwards 

 of a month he has nothing but walking-exercise, re- 

 duce the grain, if he is fat, and feed partly on green 

 food ; and be cautious that the change from any soft 

 feeding, to dry feeding, and from common exercise to 

 hard work, is always gradual, or the digestive organs 

 will be weakened, and the legs will swell. When a 

 horse is suddenly put to work, after being fattened 

 on boiled food, lucern, &c., three moderate gallops 

 will often take off all the flesh he has gained in as 

 many months, making him ill besides. 



Dry hard grain and dry grass are as injurious to a 

 horse's body, when standing for weeks without exer- 

 cise, as boiled food and green grass are to his legs 

 whilst hunting. Turning out to grass, as they do in 

 England, to eat nothing but green grass, or laying 

 up altogether, in India, to eat nothing but boiled 

 grain and green food, has long ago been proved de- 

 structive to condition. We have no opportunity in 

 this country of doing the former ; and the latter 

 should never be resorted to, unless sickness or great 

 poverty demands it. Too large a quantity of bran, 

 such as bran mashes in every feed, is also very im- 

 proper, and very lowerirfg, if continued even for a 

 fortnight only, to a horse in health. Bran mash is 

 the diet of the sick, or lame horse, or occasionally 

 to give at night mixed with the grain, when the dung 

 is in small hard balls ; but the dung in general is far 

 too soft in India. 



