MILITAEY HYGIENE ggs 



tions as regards these 500 recent arrivals may now be 

 relaxed ; they can be put with another lot of improving 

 horses, and watered in the general watering enclosure. 

 Their feet, however, must first be attended to, and for this 

 purpose they are transferred to the shoeing enclosure as 

 early as convenient after malleining. 



By the end of a week the recently joined 500 horses have 

 been malleined, had their feet seen to or shod, and have 

 had a week of work regulated according to their condition, 

 and increasing with their improvement. They have re- 

 covered from their exhausted state, and have rested 

 themselves to their hearts' content, lying at will day and 

 night on the sandy soil of the enclosure. Under these 

 conditions they have digested all food given to them, and 

 have turned it into muscle. 



It will now only be a matter of time before they become 

 fit horses. But even if through necessity this preparation 

 should unfortunately be interrupted, and these horses be 

 required for issue prematurely, or to be passed on to 

 another depot, they have benefited at least to the extent 

 shown, while the risks of laminitis are greatly reduced. 



Exercise. — The principle of the system described is based 

 upon the consideration that horses with suitable arrange- 

 ments can do much for themselves, which by custom is 

 ordinarily done for them, and that in reality it becomes an 

 absolute necessity, in dealing with large numbers, to let them 

 at least water and exercise themselves. The system, how- 

 ever, goes further than this, as it provides a means whereby 

 in a semi-automatic manner they get a regulated amount 

 of work by which they are ' conditioned ' for service. 



If the animals are fat, care is taken that work is very 

 gradually entered upon ; in this way laminitis is avoided. 

 Horses in a state of grossness flounder in their gait, and 

 have no control over the muscles of the belly, which is 

 thrown from side to side helplessly. Such animals are 

 object lessons of the condition in which remounts should 

 not be issued. As days go by and the work is increased, 

 it is observable that the muscles of the belly are under 



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