THE CARE OF HORSES. 289 
out of ten— forty-nine out of fifty, I think I might 
say — this precaution is unnecessary. In straight 
stalls I tie my horses so that they can rest their 
heads flat on the floor, and I have never had one 
injured by so doing. In many stables, if an animal 
is seen to lie down in the daytime, it is at once con- 
cluded that he must be ill. But give a horse bedding 
and sufficient halter rope, and it will soon become 
habitual with him to lie down for a part of the day 
as well as of the night. I have noticed especially 
that horses like to recline in the morning, after they 
have finished eating, comfortably snoozing while they 
digest their breakfast. Horses that are out of the 
stable all day, such as cart and hack horses, should 
always have their hay at night on the floor of the 
stall, in order that they may eat and lie down at the 
same time. This plan, as we have seen, is usually 
pursued with fire horses, and its advantages are plain. 
The disadvantage of the method is that it would, in 
some cases, entail a waste of fodder, but the waste 
would be slight. 
I do not quite share the modern prejudice against 
the old-fashioned hay-rack. It is dangerous, the au- 
thorities say, because hay-seeds are likely to fall from 
it into the animal’s eyes. This may be so, but I 
never heard or read of any such actual case. The 
disadvantage of a hay-rack placed on the floor is 
that the horse can eat from it easily and quickly; 
whereas with the high hay-rack, protected by numer- 
ous bars, he has some little difficulty in pulling out 
his fodder, and hence will be longer in consuming it, 
thus facilitating digestion, and giving him something 
todo. The best arrangement, it seems to me, would 
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