21 
INDIAN TROOP HORSES IN STABLES AND ON 
THE LINE OF MARCH. 
BY 
MAJOR E. C. HAWKSHAW, R.A. 
PREFACE. 
Iw offering these few lines to my brother officers, I am well aware of 
the already acquired knowledge of them by the majority, but on the 
principle of “ pacing a troop by the slowest horse” I have ventured to 
put them on paper in hopes that the hints herein contained may be of 
some use to somebody. 
As the management of troop horses in India so much varies with the 
time of year, if you want to keep them fit, I have taken the year in 
periods beginning with April. 
APRIL. 
Inspections being now all over, and the hot weather and consequent 
leave season beginning, most Commanding Officers wish to keep things 
up to the mark without the hard wear and tear of the cold weather with 
its marches, camps of exercise and practise. With this end in view a 
horse’s constitution undergoes no harm by a change too in the matter 
of food. The grass fund is an admirable institution to harbour your 
strength with. By cutting your horses’ food a little during the summer 
and putting the proceeds into the grass fund you are in a position to 
feed them with more than the regulation allowance when your hard 
work comes in the cold weather, and they consequently require it more. 
The mistake, however, is too frequently made of cutting the animals’ 
food and bucketing them about as well. This, of course, is fatal. 
Too high feeding in hot weather leads to skin disease unless there 
isa great deal of sweating to counteract it, and the result of the 
sweating, when the ground is so very hard, is that the horses are lamed 
to no purpose through various causes. A small amount of perspiration 
is good for man and beast, and the latter on 8 lbs. of half gram and 
half bran, if properly administered and exercised with discretion, will be 
fit and well. 
All the horses in my battery get a seer before they go out in the 
morning during the hot weather, and their regular feed in the winter. 
They never leave the lines on an empty stomach. 
Grass is as arule easily procured now. Look forward, therefore, to 
the rains, when you wil] badly want dry grass and bedding, and make 
LR VOLMeXOCDTTs 
