FATTENING HORSES.

At the end of this time, wash the wound and tail with strong soap suds, and place the horse in the pulleys, where he should remain about three weeks, or until his wounds have healed. Abstract half a gallon of blood each week; and double that quantity should the tail be much inflamed. Keep the parts clean, by frequently washing with soap suds. Twice a week take the tail from the pulleys, and let it remain down during the night. Before putting it up again, the horse may be rode a few hundred yards.

Great pains should be taken to have the weights equal, in order to prevent the tail from permanently twisting, as this would ruin the animal in appearance. During the continuance of the horse in the pulleys, his diet should be light, and if practicable consist of green food. His legs should be frequently washed or bathed with pot-liquor, in which bacon has been boiled. Vinegar, sweet oil, or lard and spirits may be substituted. Occasionally the wounds may be washed in copperas water, which will accelerate the process of healing.

PRICKING. This operation, which consists in simply dividing the great tendons of the tail, is now generally abandoned, having seldom been found to accomplish the desired effect.

FOXING. This consists in depriving a horse of a portion of his ears, for the purpose of improving his looks. An easy mode of performing the operation is to take a small paint brush, and with paint in contrast to the color of the horse, mark the ears of the length and shape desired; then place a switch on the horse's nose, at the same time holding up a fore foot; with a sharp knife cut the ears in the line made by the paint. Wash the wound with salt and water, once a day for a week, after which apply sweet oil until healed. Those horses only, which have small, thin, delicate heads, are improved by foxing.

DOCKING. To perform this operation safely, put a switch on the upper lip of the horse, and hold one of his fore legs up well nigh his body. Tie a waxed string tight round the tail above where it is to be cut off. Lay the tail on a smooth block of wood, and with a sharp knife, and mallet, you may easily sever it at a single blow. When this has been effected, place a little rosin on the wound, and sear it moderately with a hot iron. In a few days remove the waxed string, and to the wound apply occasionally a little fresh butter or sweet oil.

FATTENING. To fatten a horse in a short space of time, is justly considered a desirable art. Should the animal which you wish to fatten be quite poor, commence by subtracting one quart of blood-to be repeated once in eight or ten days. If he be in tolerable condition, the bleedings may consist of two quarts at a time. Commence also giving at the same time, the following mash, to be repeated every eight days: flax seed, one pint, boiled to a strong tea of one quart; powdered brimstone, one table spoonfull; saltpetre, one tea spoonfull; bran, one and a half gallons, scalding the bran with the tea. After the mash, the horse should not drink cold water for eight or ten hours. It is important also to take of assafoetida half an ounce, which being wrapped in a clean rag is to be nailed to the bottom of the manger, where the animal is fed, and of which in a few days he will become remarkably fond. Caution is to be exercised in feeding an extremely poor horse, lest you produce a founder or some other injury; but at the expiration of three or four days the danger will be passed, and the horse may be full fed. It will be well to

H

EXCESSIVE FATIGUE.

moisten his food occasionally with strong sassafras tea, which tends to enrich the blood, and open the bowels. A handfull of salt two or three times a week thrown into his water will prove grateful, and serve to increase his appetite. Should the object be to fatten a horse in the shortest possible space, he should not be rode, nor even led out of the stable but if solidity of flesh be desired, moderate exercise once in three days will be of service. Great care should be taken to have his hoofs cleaned every morning and evening, and stuffed with clay and salt, or fresh cow manure, to keep the feet cool, and prevent the swelling of the legs. It is indispensible that the curry-comb and brush should be used upon him every day, until he be quite clean. A blanket, as a covering, will add to his comfort, and assist in improving his appearance and

condition.

EXCESSIVE FATIGUE. It is sometimes necessary to require a horse to undergo great fatigue. To accomplish this, without injury, requires some preparation. Previous to entering him on his journey, a writer* remarks, he should be fed plentifully on solid old food, such as corn, fodder, hay, or oats, and exercised from five to ten miles a day. He should be well rubbed two or three times every twenty-four hours, which will have the effect of making his flesh not only firm, but hard.

Experience has proved, that rainy or drisly weather, is more favorable to the performance of an excessive hard ride, than a day that is fair or sultry with sunshine; rain having the effect of keeping a horse cool, rendering his limbs supple, of moistening and refreshing him.

On the night previous to his engaging in this laborious_undertaking, the same writer recommends to feed the horse six quarts of oats or four of corn, with as much good hay as he can eat; in the morning to feed one quart of oats or corn only, and offer some salt and water, of which a horse is apt to drink but little. At a distance of fifteen or eighteen miles give him a bucket of salt and water, with two handfuls of corn meal thrown therein, and one quart of oats or corn; at twelve o'clock, and at dinner time feed and water him in the same manner. Your horse will require nothing more till night.

The day's ride being performed, turn him into a lot to cool and wallow; after which let him be placed in a stall on a good bed of straw. 1st. Offer him a bucket of water. 2nd. Remove all dirt and dust from his legs and ancles with soap and warm water. 3d. Bathe him from his belly to his hoofs with equal parts of vinegar and spirits, to which add a little sweet oil, fresh butter, or hog's lard, stewing them all together, and make use of the mixture as warm as the hand can bear it. 4th. He must be well curried, brushed, and finally polished with a sheep skin or woolen cloth. 5th. His feet should be nicely cleaned out and stuffed with clay and salt, or fresh cow manure. 6th. He should be fed with one gallon of old corn, or one and a half gallons of oats, and six bundles of old fodder. Your horse being now in possession of every attention and comfort you could offer him, will soon be refreshed, forget his hard service, and be again prepared, by the next morning, to obey you. whither you may direct his footsteps. If you have more than one day's journey to perform with great rapidity, observe the same rules of feeding, watering and attention, as directed for the first day, except the feeding at twelve o'clock, which quantity must be doubled. Many elegant and

*Mason.

TREATMENT ON A JOURNEY.

high spirited horses have been ruined and rendered useless, by persons wanting experience on the above subject, who were disposed to treat those faithful animals with every kindness in their power; yet, being under the necessity of performing a long journey in a limited time, and not knowing that the will of a heated and fatigued horse should be controlled, they have permitted him to eat as much as he pleased, or when heated to drink as much cold pond or branch water, as his great thirst would induce him, which have often been the means of producing cholic, founder and other diseases, that too frequently prove fatal in the hands of a common farrier, to which title every ostler blacksmith, and every blockhead of a servant, who does not even understand the currying of a horse, have pretensions. The loss of two or three quarts of blood to a horse that has undergone excessive fatigue, will remove the soreness and stiffness of his limbs, the natural consequence of violent exertion.

TREATMENT ON A JOURNEY. To perform a long journey with comfort and ease to a horse, requires, as in the case of excessive fatigue, several days previous preparation. A horse which has been kept only at grass, or which is uncommonly fat, or unaccustomed to exercise and fatigue, is quite unfit to perform a journey. A horse about half fat is in the best condition to bear the fatigue and labor of a journey, especially if for eight or ten days previous to setting out, he be fed with old corn, oats, or hay, and be moderately exercised. Thus prepared, the following mode of treatment is recommended upon the authority of Mason, in his "Farrier Improved."

"1st. Never permit your horse, while travelling, to drink cold branch, well, or pond water, or more than is necessary to wet or moisten his mouth. 2nd. Every time you stop to feed, (which will be morning, breakfast, and dinner time,) give him a bucket of water made a little salt, with about two handfuls of corn meal stirred in it; he will very soon grow fond of it, and indeed prefer it to every other drink; it cools the system, relieves thirst, and contains considerable nutriment. 3d. Whenever you stop for the purpose of breakfasting, let your horse cool about ten minutes; then feed with half a gallon of oats or corn and two bundles of fodder, not forgetting to offer him again the water, meal and salt. 4th. At dinner time observe the same treatment, as directed at breakfast. 5th. At night (having arrived at the place you intend stopping at) have your horse turned into a lot, for the purpose of wallowing, cooling, &c. 6th. With soap and water have all dirt removed from his legs. 7th. Have him placed on a good bed of straw, then take of spirits of any kind half a pint, of vinegar half a pint, mix them together, and let his legs be washed with the mixture until they are dry. 8th. Let him be well curried, brushed, and rubbed with straw. 9th. Water him plentifully. 10th. Feed him with two gallons of oats, or one and a half gallons of corn or hominy, and eight or ten bundles of fodder. 11th. Let his hoofs be nicely cleaned out and stuffed with fresh cow manure; this application keeps them tough, moist, and cool. 12th. Change your food as often as possible, carefully avoid eating any that is new, or just gathered. Observe the above rules to your journey's end, except your horse should prove a great feeder, and in that case you may indulge him a little; but the quanlity I have here recommended, is enough for any common horse when travelling. It may not be amiss to remind the young traveller, to inspect his horses shoes once a day, and whatever appears amiss about them to have immediately rectified. It frequently happens that the skin of

REARING AND TRAINING OF COLTS.

young horses, unaccustomed to travel, is chafed and scalded by the friction of the girth; the part, washed and cleaned with a little soap and water, and then washed with a little salt and water, will immediately cure and toughen the skin."

ON THE REARING AND TRAINING OF COLTS.

During the first summer, the foals may be allowed to run with their dams until September or October, if the weather continue open and mild. They should then be weaned and kept in fold-yards, or paddocks, containing open sheds, with low racks and mangers for receiving their food; which ought, at first, to be the sweetest hay that can be procured. Where rowen can be commanded, it will furnish a succulent and invigorating article; but, both with hay and rowen, bran or oats should be given in due proportions, which indeed can only be ascertained by experience. When, however, oats form a part of the food, it has been recommended to bruise or crush them previously in a mill; which necessary precaution will prevent the distention of the lower jaw veins, which would otherwise attract the blood and humors down into the eyes, and thus occasion blindness. Further; by feeding young colts with oats, in conjunction with other articles, their limbs become better knit than when they are fed only with bran and hay; while they will also be enabled to endure greater severity of weather, and to acquire the vigor requisite to their future improvement. It may, indeed, be assumed as an axiom, that there is no greater error in breeding any animals, than that too common one of stinting them during the early period of their growth. It is then that they require the greatest nourishment; and if it be withheld, they will be injured in their constitution, and consequently in their value, to a far greater extent than any saving that can be effected in their food; but to no animal does this remark apply more strongly than to the horse.

It is a common practice, on weaning foals, to put them into warm stables during the following winter; from a notion that they are not, at that early age, able to support the cold of an open shed. Whether this may be judicious with regard to the more tender breeds of blood cattle, it is not our present object to enquire; but with respect to the cart species, it is unquestionably wrong. These, from the nature of their future employment, must necessarily be exposed to every vicissitude of weather; and they cannot be too early inured to a certain degree of hardship. They should, indeed, be carefully kept from lying out, in the wet, at night; but during the day, they cannot be too much abroad; and dry hovels are far to be preferred to warm stables for their nightly shelter. It has been even found that young colts, which had shown symptoms of disease while kept with all the care usually bestowed on hunters, have recovered when removed to a paddock, and that weaned foals have thriven better when only sheltered in a rick yard than when housed.

Colts, thus treated, will have acquired sufficient strength and hardihood before the second winter, to be enabled to brave the inclemency of the season, without any other food than hay, or any other covering than that with which nature has provided them. The largest dray horses are thus reared in the Lincolnshire marshes, in England: yet if they can be allowed the shelter of a straw-yard, with the addition, to their hay, of unthrash

REARING AND TRAINING OF COLTS.

ed oat-straw, or some of the succulent roots, but especially carrots, it will be of material benefit; but they should be daily turned out into a field, as exercise is not merely conducive to their general health and growth, but particularly requisite in strengthening the sinews of their limbs, and giving firmness to their feet. This, indeed, is attended with additional trouble; for, in severe seasons, or when the pasture is quite bare, it becomes necessary to feed them in the pasture to which they are turned.

The following summer the colts should be allowed the range of the best pastures, though they are too frequently turned on the worst; and in autumn they should be taken in, for the purpose of being broke to labor.

The process of training horses for the saddle is one of considerable nicety: for those intended for the plough, it is much more simple; but for both, the chief and best means are, gentleness and patience. The horse is an animal of much observation; capable of great attachment, and of equally strong resentment; if treated with kindness he becomes docile ; but severity generally fails of its object, and renders him intractable. There is certainly much difference in their natural temper, some requiring much more care and time to reduce them to obedience than others; but even the most restive may be rendered manageable by mild usage.

From the moment of its being weaned, the foal should he accustomed to the halter, and to be wisped over and occasionally tied up; but this should be done by the same person who feeds it, and that care should never be entrusted to lads, who will probably teaze the animal and teach it tricks, or to any hasty, ill-tempered man, who would be likely to illtreat it. The colt will thus early become accustomed to be handled, and will consequently occasion much less trouble, than if he had been previously neglected. After being a day or two in the stable, a bridle should be put on; but with a small bit at first, instead of the large one usually employed by horse breakers, and which by the horse's champing on it with impatience, sometimes occasions the mouth to become callous. He should then be led about, and accustomed to obey the rein in turning and stopping, which he will very soon learn; and, after a few days he should be completely harnassed, and put into a team among steady cattle. Care should, however, be taken, neither to whip him nor to force him to draw, but leave him quietly to walk with the other horses, and in a very short time he will imitate them and begin to pull. It may then be as well to let some one mount him, even if he should not be intended to be commonly ridden, as it will render him the more docile; but this had better be done while he is in the team, as the other horses will prevent him from plunging. Let no violence be used; for such is his power of observation, that while he will readily learn every thing that he is taught, he will also recollect many things that might be wished forgotten: thus, if flogged for starting at any particular object, he will only start the more on meeting it again, for he will remember the chastisement it occasioned; and if hurt in shoeing, or on any other occasion, he will never forget the pain it occasioned, and will never suffer a repetition of the same without impatience. Castration is commonly performed when the colt is twelve or eighteen months old: some defer it longer, thinking that the later the operation is performed, the more strength and spirit he will have acquired; but it is attended with greater danger at that period; and it is much to be doubted whether it may not even be prejudicial to his temper. It is, besides, to be observed, that the severity of the operation occasions a check to his