Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece Part 7

The head-stall should have a buckle on each cheek-strap; the throat-lash should be sewed to the top, and should have a buckle on each side. If the horse slips his head-stall, take the throat-lash out of the front, and you may buckle it almost as tight as a neck-strap, which is the safest of all fastenings. The objection is that, when a horse has to raise heavy logs in the stall for each mouthful of hay, the strap wears his mane. For this reason a front is used to the head-stall; it however then wears the horse's head, and is the origin of what is called pole-evil; the bone of the nose is often worn through by the nose-band, forming abscesses _inside_ the nostrils. Small horses and ponies are particularly liable to this, in getting their hay from high racks. These are reasons for horses standing loose where this is possible. A quarter of a century ago I had the honour to arrange the head-stalls of the 2nd Life Guards as above, and I am proud to see them still in use.

[Sidenote: Never physic, blister, or fire.]

On no occasion and on no persuasion give your horse physic, or bleed him, or blister him, or fire him, or let the blacksmith have anything to do with any part of him which is more sensible than the callous crust of his hoof.

[Sidenote: Food for condition. Rest for strains. Nature for wounds.]

Condition depends on food, not physic. Rest is the cure for sprains and strains. Nature cures wounds unless prevented by _art_. Nature stops the bleeding by the glue of the blood coagulating about the wound; _staunching_ with cloths wipes this off and promotes the bleeding. Lint a.s.sists, but when Nature has formed a plaister over a wound it should not be interfered with or _washed_; leave it to come off of itself.

Where great discharge ensues wash it off _sound_ parts, and grease them to prevent the skin coming off. Don't believe in what is called "_proud flesh_." The granulations of new flesh are always called so, and burnt off as fast as they grow by corrosive sublimate or "oils as'll cut a broomstick in two."

[Sidenote: Miles for shoeing.]

As a brother officer of the 2nd Life Guards has published a perfect book on shoeing, and as he did me the honour to dedicate it to me, I have only to say that on that subject I am completely "Miles's boy."

[Sidenote: Water always by the horse.]

About a quarter of a century ago I recommended in print that all horses should have water by them in the stall: it is now so universally the practice, that I need not here repeat the reasons for it. I have not heard of any horse drinking till he burst, though all grooms a.s.sured me that all stabled horses would do so.

It is distending food, not drink, which forms the large carcase. Food takes long to digest, but it is astonis.h.i.+ng how quickly what the horse drinks is absorbed. The late Mr. Field having a horse condemned to die, kept him two days without water, gave him two buckets, and killed him five minutes after. There was not a drop of water in his stomach.

[Sidenote: The horse should stand loose.]

A horse should have a loose standing if possible; if he must be tied in a stall it should be flat. A horse cannot stand up hill without muscular exertion, and the toe constantly up, and the heel constantly down, induces ruinous distress to the back sinews.

[Sidenote: No galloping on hard ground.]

[Sidenote: He who cripples the horse kills him.]

Do not let your groom gallop your hunter on the hard ground in autumn; and my last word shall be a pet.i.tion on this subject to master as well as man--to deprecate a piece of inhumanity practised, indeed, as much by ladies as by gentlemen--the riding the horse fast on hard ground. I pray them to consider that horses do not die of old age, but that they are killed because they become crippled, and that he who cripples them is guilty of their death, not he who pulls the trigger. The practice is as unhorsemanlike as it is inhuman. It is true that money will replace the poor slaves as you use them up, and if occasion requires it they must, alas! be used up. But in my opinion, nothing but a case of life and death can justify the deed. If the ground is hard and even, a collected canter may be allowed; but if hard and uneven, a moderate trot at most.

One hour's gallop on such ground would do the soundest horse irremediable mischief. Those who boast of having gone such a distance in such a time, on the ground supposed, show ignorance or inhumanity. Such feats require cruelty only, not courage. Nay, they are performed most commonly by the very hors.e.m.e.n who are too cowardly or too unskilful to dare to trust their horse with his foot on the elastic turf, or to stand with him the chances of the hunting-field. And such is the inconsistency of human nature, that they are performed by persons who would shudder at the sight of the bleeding flank of the race-horse, or who would lay down with disgust, and some expression of maudlin, morbid humanity, the truly interesting narrative of that most intrepid and enduring of all gallopers, Sir Francis Head. But compare the cases. In the case of the race-horse, his skin is wounded to urge him to his utmost exertion for a few seconds, from which in a few minutes he is perfectly recovered, and ready, nay eager, to start again. In the case of the wild horse of the Pampas, he is urged for two, three, or perhaps five hours, to the utmost distress for wind, as well as muscular fatigue. He is enlarged, and in a day or two he is precisely the same as if he had never been ridden. But in the case of the English road-rider, though no spur is used, unfair advantage is taken of the horse's impetuous freedom of nature, his sinews are strained, his joints permanently stiffened, he is deprived at once and for ever of his elasticity and action, and brought prematurely a cripple to the grave.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

APRIL, 1861.

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