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

138 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
and others keeping a number of horses to lose several of
them within very short periods of each other with this
malady, from which an opinion prevails that this staggers
is contagious. Nothing can be more erroneous than this
belief, as it is quite certain it is the result of bad stable
management or by overfeeding the horse with unwhole-
some food, or by the horse feeding too voraciously as already
mentioned. This disease is much more common with old
horses than young ones, owing to the want of vital energy
in the digestive organs. Prevention in this complaint is
again better than cure, and therefore 1 would strongly
recommend owners of horses to look to them, and give
some attention to the following :— Too much food given
at one time after long fasting or hard work, or neglecting to
give the animal water, is certain to produce staggers.
The hours of labour should be for limited spaces of
time, with proper intervals of rest allowed, and the
horse regularly fed during these intervals. Every man
must have felt the effects of going without his dinner
for three or four hours beyond the accustomed time.
Exhaustion is sure to follow, which is produced by the
juices acting upon the coating of an empty stomach.
From five to six hours is the usual time between the meals
of a labouring man, and with a horse that is worked no
longer interval should elapse without feeding and water-
ing. When persons are occasionally so situated that
they cannot unyoke their horses at stated times for food
and rest, they ought to carry hay and a nosebag with
a supply of corn with them. Indeed, it is surprising,
if they do not do it on the score of humanity, that they
should be so blind to their own interests as to neglect