Riding and Driving

by Edward L. Anderson; Price Collier

When one sees the wretched cabins, called boxes, hot in summer, draughty in winter, in which horses are kept on many of the breeding farms, and even on some of the race-courses, it is a matter of wonder that health and condition of the stock can be maintained under such circumstances. Exposure to the inclemency of the weather, however, is better than the pampering which city horses usually find in close and overheated stables.

The stable should be reasonably warm in winter and as cool in summer as may be, thoroughly ventilated, without draughts, and with good drainage. The light should be admitted from the rear of the stalls; certainly a horse should not stand facing a near window on a level with its head. A gangway should be in the front of the stalls as well as in the rear, and the horse should be fed through an opening about sixteen inches wide in the front of the stall. This narrow opening will be beneficial to the sight of the horse, and the animal cannot fight its neighbors. For more than half a century the home stable of the author has had such an arrangement, which proved perfectly satisfactory. In that stable there were two rows of stalls facing a middle gangway.

Except for sick or weary horses, the stall is better than the loose box; in the former, stable discipline is better kept up. In a loose box an idle horse is apt to become too playful, and horse-play too often degenerates into something worse, such as biting and kicking.

The floor of the stable should be of hard bricks, or of some combination of asphalt. The drainage should be to the rear of the stalls, with a very slight slope. If the drains are made under the horse, the slopes are multiplied and the inclines are greater than in the length of the stalls. Always the horse should have an abundance of dry straw, and for the night this should be renewed or rearranged, so that the animal shall have a soft, dry bed. The food should be varied, the quantity depending upon the size of the horse, the work demanded of it, and its appetite and digestion. For a horse 15½ hands high, the size in which agility and sufficient strength are usually found, ten to twelve pounds of oats and the same quantity of hay should be given daily in three portions, when in hard work. When the horse is merely exercised, four or five pounds of oats and six pounds of hay will be sufficient. When it is found that a horse does not clean out its manger, the feed should be reduced. In addition to the oats and hay, the horse should have a few carrots two or three times a week, occasionally an apple, and a steamed mash of bran and crushed oats about once a week, as an aperient, given preferably on the eve of some day of rest. During the spring and summer the animal should have a handful of fresh grass, not clover, every day; but not more than a good handful, for a larger quantity might bring on some intestinal trouble, whereas the titbit is greatly appreciated and is highly beneficial. These dainties will be received with a good grace from the master and will encourage friendly relations between horse and man. Salt should be given in very small quantities two or three times a week, and the horse should have a frequent supply of pure, unchilled water, given some time before meals; if it is offered four or five times a day, it will not be too often.

The horse should be out of the stable, except in very inclement weather, for at least two hours every day; eight hours of slow work, with a halt for rest and refreshment after the first three hours, is not too much for a horse in good condition.

During the Civil War, General John Morgan, after two weeks of severe campaigning, marched his cavalry command, without dismounting, a distance of ninety-four miles in about thirty-five hours. Many of the horses of Kentucky breeding performed this work without flinching, and were called upon to do further duty without respite. Notwithstanding the vigor with which General Morgan conducted this raid into Ohio, he was overtaken by General Hobson after twenty-one days of hard marching, in which a distance of about seven hundred and fifty miles was covered. On a previous occasion General Morgan marched his cavalry ninety miles in about twenty-five hours. Under somewhat similar circumstances the "exigencies of the service" have on occasion required the author to remain in the saddle, with but momentary dismounting, if any, for from sixteen to eighteen hours, sometimes riding at the gallop, and the horse, a thoroughbred by Albion, never exhibited distress. Nor will he ever forget that, on the first day of January, 1863, he rode a little mustang from daylight until midnight, without leaving the saddle, except when the horse fell, twice upon a frosty hillside and once on a bit of corduroy road. But such demands upon the endurance of a horse, and, if I may say it, of the man, are not unusual in active military service.

A horse should never be struck or otherwise punished in the stable, and the first exhibition of cruelty on the part of the groom should be the cause of his dismissal.

The currycomb should be used only for cleaning the brush, and never should be applied to the skin of the horse; but so great is the temptation to use it on a mud-covered animal that it is better to abolish the instrument. A whalebone mud brush, a strong straw brush, a smoothing brush, a soft cotton cloth, and several good sponges, together with some wisps of clean straw, should be the only articles of the toilet.

The face and nostrils, the dock, and other hairless parts of the horse should be washed daily; but, except to cleanse sores or for wet bandages, water should never be put upon the legs of the horse. Tight bandages are permissible only when applied by a skilled groom, or under the orders of a veterinary surgeon. Massage, rubbing the legs of the horse with the hand downward, should take the place of bandages except when support is really needed, and then the advice of the professional should be called.