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

In the Stable , Field, and on the Road. 63
undertake to build horses as many contractors do houses .
run up the frames and bare walls, and then sell them to
other people to put the plaster on ; or perhaps they are
of a philosophic turn of mind, and would answer as
Butterwick did, when twitted about his horse, " Who
wants to see a horse even from stem to stern ? No, sir •
it is monotonous and wearisome to the mind. Which is
best, a level plain, or landscape with a little bit of hill
and a little bit of valley ? You have it in a horse like
mine ; and, beside, you are always sure that nobody has
stolen a single, solitary bone, and you have all you pur-
chased. If he was as fat as a bladder of lard, how should
we know that some of its most important bones were not
missing ? " The carriage horse and hunter should always
be fed on the best old oats, with white peas or beans, or
what is better, both. Some people will say that old
beans make horses legs fill; depend upon it, they
oftener fill for the want of them. Four quarterns of
oats and one of beans, is as much as one horse will
eat in a day as a rule, if he is in good condition,
with a little sweet hay morning and night. I always
give cut hay with the corn, as it makes the
horse masticate his food better ; he does not swallow
the corn whole, as some greedy feeders are apt to do. I
do not think clover good for horses in fast work, but am
fond of good sanfoin to cut up. Mouldy and mow-burnt
hay are very injurious to the horse ; the first will be sure
to make the animal thick-winded and ultimately go
broken-winded. It produces irritation in the air cells by
the fungal growth of mould, and mow-burnt hay is
equally bad, as it acts powerfully upon the kidneys, often