Riding and Driving

by Edward L. Anderson; Price Collier

How shall we avoid all this? If you have no interest in your stable and have no time, say half an hour a day, to devote to it, and no other member of the family knows or cares anything about it, by all means job your horses and do not attempt a stable. At least you can avoid being particeps criminis in the ruining of horses, the spoiling of coachmen and grooms, and the wasteful destruction of harnesses and carriages.

But if you have a stable, look after it. Provide yourself with a Stable Book; a long-leaved book of a hundred and fifty pages,—the left-hand page with the month at the top and thirty-one spaces below for days of the month. At the top as headings have Feed—Shoeing—Repairs—Cash—Miscellaneous. On the right-hand page have blank space for Remarks and any details about horses, veterinary visits, horses bought or sold. The coachman should enter against the proper dates what horses are shod and how, what feed comes in, all articles, including clothes, purchased, and all other details. This book comes in at the end of the month, to be compared with the owners' bills, and he should add the amounts and check off the items. Both the coachman and the owner should know to a penny what the stable is costing.

We have all probably discovered that we do not know where to save, if we do not know how we spend. The beginning of all economy is the knowledge of expenditures. It may be maintained just here that all this is too much trouble! Those who feel that way had best close the book. Neither this chapter nor any of the others is written for those who know it all,—of whom, alas, there are so many,—nor for those who do not wish to know anything which entails trouble.

The necessary implements for the work of the stable should be furnished willingly, and buckets, hose, forks, hangers, clothes, chamois, hooks, brooms, sponges, should be kept in repair or renewed. It is a poor plan to economize at the working end of the stable. One or two horses or traps less, or a groom less, but let what you have be good of its kind and be kept good.

Once a week the stable should be washed out, polished, and dusted, and sprinkled with Sanitas or some other good disinfectant, and the owner should, as they say on shipboard, have "quarters." Look over everything from end to end; if you do not take that much interest in the matter, it is not likely that the executive officer at the stable will retain a very enthusiastic interest in the affairs of the stable for long. A man with half an eye can tell, from the horses, harnesses, and vehicles he sees, whether the owners coöperate with their coachmen or not.

A man should be able to groom a horse thoroughly in from thirty to forty minutes, and this work should be done, if possible, away from the other horses.

A good routine for stable management can only be worked out by each man for himself, according to the regular demands upon the stable from the family, as a basis.

Although horses are kept primarily to work, it is by no means easy, although of all things most necessary, that they should have exercise regularly. Many of the accidents and much of the illness in most stables arise from irregular exercise and careless feeding. The average horse in the private stable should be out two hours a day, and should do ten miles. With one day's rest in seven, seasoned horses can do more than this—up to fifteen, and even more, miles a day—and be the better for it.