The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

iO The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
morning, and he was about the only man in Melton
Mowbray who escaped the influenza in 1837. Although
I contend that a cold stable, under proper management,
need not be an unhealthy one, yet I have a great horror
of a damp and draughty stable. How few gentlemen,
grooms, and architects, think anything about the damp-
ness of stables, and make no convenience for washing
horses, but have the horses washed in the stall or box
they sleep in ; then, after saturating the bricks with
water, the horse, after the fatigue of a hard day's work,
has to lie upon a damp, cold bed, while the pores of his
skin are relaxed by exertion. Next day he is stiff and
sore, and in a day or two he commences to cough ; the
groom is then blamed for the horse having caught cold.
The evil effects ot cold, damp, and ill-ventilated stables
are well known to veterinary surgeons, from the number
of horses suffering from rheumatism. I was once shown
a valuable animal by Mr. Broad, M.R.C.V.S., of Star-
street, Edgware-road, London, which was bought from a
gentleman three days previous for £250. It was brought
from his warm, dry stable, and put into a very damp
one, and on the following morning it was unable to
move ;
the damp (it being of a delicate constitution) had
struck to the bone, producing a violent attack of rheu-
matism, so bad, indeed, that upon passing the finger
down the limbs, it produced a sound like the crackling
of parchment. I have now endeavoured to show a few
of the faults of the stable itself; in my next I will try to
show what a stable ought to be. I am dealing with
facts, and I am compelled to blame if I speak truthfully ;
but I hope my readers will forgive me if my doctrine is