CHAPTER VI
FEEDING AND STABLE MANAGEMENT
Experience has shown that one man can care for three horses; that two men can care for seven; three men are needed for ten, and so on. But even this must be modified. Where the members of the family live in the country and do most of their own driving, these figures are correct, but in an establishment where two men are required on the box with one or more vehicles, and a groom must accompany each trap, and there is, to boot, a fair amount of riding, additional help is needed in the stable, if everything is to go smoothly; and horses, harnesses, saddles, and carriages are to be turned out well.
The whole problem of the care and system of a stable centres around the horse, and more particularly the horse's stomach. No animal, in proportion to its size, has such a small stomach as a horse. The stomach of a man, whose weight is one-eighth of that of a horse, will hold something more than three quarts of water; while the stomach of a horse will only hold three gallons, or four times that quantity. The great bulk of the horse requires a large quantity of food, and what food he eats digests and passes through him quickly. If this were not so, the stomach would for a large part of the time be so distended and so press upon other organs of the body that his usefulness would be seriously impaired.
He must, therefore, be fed regularly and often, that is to say, three times a day at least, and four times is better. The management of the stable must hinge, therefore, upon the meal hours of its inmates and their use by the owners—where horses must do duty at an early train in the morning and another train in the evening, or where horses are out shopping from 11 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and there is driving and riding in the afternoon, and night duty as well, the routine of the stable must be adapted to those demands.
In the case of a large stable, where three or four men are kept, a regular routine of duty should be laid out as on shipboard, with hours and duties clearly set down, otherwise confusion will reign. In a small stable the requirements of the family should be so far as possible along regular lines, and in all cases everywhere no coachman or groom ought to be subjected to calls for horses without warning. By nine o'clock in the morning the orders for horses wanted up to noon should be given; by two o'clock the orders for horses wanted up to eight o'clock. This cannot be done always, but it ought to be done so far as possible, otherwise the best-natured and most systematic man in the world will find it impossible to keep his stable running smoothly, his horses fed and watered and dressed at the proper times, and, most important of all, his horses ready for work when they are needed.
A horse just watered, or with a stomach full of hay, or with a hearty feed in him, is perhaps the most uncomfortable of all conveyances, and if worked hard under the circumstances does himself serious injury.
There is no real pleasure, no real sport, in this world that does not entail intelligence and labor. It is one of the greatest of pleasures, one of the most wholesome sports, to own, to ride, and to drive horses. But to have a stable of, say, from three to ten horses and to get your own fun out of it, requires work, intelligence, and oversight.
Visit your friends who have horses and see how often this horse cannot go out, that horse cannot go out. One is lame, another has a sore back, another is used up from yesterday, and so on. Or look about you at the condition of your neighbors' horses,—tired-looking, staring coats, bags of bones to look at, rattling carriages and ill-fitting harnesses, interfering, and overreaching; and these establishments cost money and are supposed to give pleasure.