Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece / or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding

by George Greenwood

The play of the ribs in breathing saws the sore; he is disinclined to lie down because the roller is tightened by this position. The groom puts his hand towards the ridge; the ears go back and a leg is lifted. The horse gets a kick in the stomach or a blow with the fist, and becomes shy in the stall as well as vicious. In cleaning him underneath, the groom rests his hand on the sore ridge and the horse dashes his teeth against the wall, and lashes out from pain; he becomes shy to saddle, shy to girth, shy to mount, and he hogs his back, and perhaps plunges when you are up.

I have used two remedies; first, a more efficient bridge. Let the pads of the channel be deep and steep towards each other and die off on the side from each other, set them wide apart and have the channel clear. The common error is to stuff the channel, which increases the evil. Stable breastplate. Next a loose roller, but this involves the necessity of a breast-girth to prevent the roller going back under the flank. If the breast-girth is loose it falls below the breast and is burst by the legs of the horse in getting up. If it is tight it pulls the roller on to the rise of the withers. I have used, and I recommend a breastplate on the principle of a hunting breastplate. The bearing should be only from the top of the neck to the lower part of the roller; a long upper strap to prevent it falling forward when the head is down, should take off and on the channel by a slip loop. The lower strap is also taken off and on the roller with a slip loop. The breast-piece buckles or ties on the near shoulder. When taken off, it pulls out of the lower strap, and remains attached to the channel by the upper strap; the lower strap remains attached to the lower part of the roller.

I wish my pupil would make a model with my favourite bit of string, and then call the saddler to his aid. He may have it of scarlet, if he is fond of ornament, of webbing bis Afro murice tincta, or of scarlet and gold if he likes.

The roller must keep the cloths forward; if they are fastened tight across the chest, the horse bursts them in getting up or in putting his head down.

The head-stall. 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.

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.

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 assists, 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.”

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.”

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 assured 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 astonishing 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.