XI. 
THE CARE OF HORSES. 
O many treatises have been written concerning 
the horse and his stable that I should do bet- 
ter, some critics might think, to let the matter alone. 
But my excuse is this: I do not mean to write a 
treatise, but only a chapter; and, unless my knowl- 
edge of horse books is at fault, the modest task of 
putting the essentials of the subject in so brief a 
form has never yet been attempted. The present 
essay will contain no long Latin words, no medical 
terms, no vague prescriptions; it will merely treat of 
those commonplace things which more learned au- 
thors are apt to omit. Nor doI pretend to write for 
the typical horseman, who would scorn to obtain in- 
formation from the printed page. He knows already 
all that man can know. I have not forgotten the 
