Among Horses in India. 11 



Picketing out at Night. 



A few yards ia rear of the covered lines there should be 

 standing room, where the horses may be picketed every 

 night during the hot weather. 



At that season the wind usually falls to a dead calm after 

 sunset, and the heat is most stifling even under a shed with 

 open sides, compared with what it is in a completely open 

 place. 



The mangers and pillars of the stables confine the air, and 

 also absorb heat which they give out during the night ; and 

 the horses are in every way far more comfortable outside the 

 roofed stables than inside, except when it is raining. 



The ground upon which they are picketed should be 

 covered with clay and kankar, rammed hard like that inside 

 the stables ; but instead of being level it should have a slope 

 of about three inches from front to rear, in order that rain- 

 water may run off it freely. 



Mangees. 



Mangers are almost everywhere constructed of mud pillars 

 with basin-shaped earthen vessels sunk in them, the edges 

 being level with the top of the mud. 



These vessels are frequently small and with round bottoms, 

 in consequence of which the horses that are greedy feeders 

 are enabled to swallow their food too rapidly. The vessels 

 should be not less than a foot in diameter, and with bottoms 

 almost flat. The grain can then be spread out in a thin 

 layer, and the horses are compelled to eat it slowly. 



Mangers of this kind have two great advantages — they are 

 easily kept clean, and are very cheap, so that when a horse 

 has any disease in the slightest degree resembling one of an 

 infectious nature, there need be no hesitation in breaking the 

 earthen vessel and pulling down the mud pillar. 



Private Stables. 

 I will here say a few words respecting private stables, as 

 officers rarely keep their chargers with the regimental horses, 



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