Send your Horses to Grass where the Pasture is fine without being forced, where the Water is good, and there is comfortable Shelter for them to run to in Wet Weather: they should always have Hay to go to, especially in Winter. You may be charged a trifle per Week more for this; but it is Money well spent, if you value your Horse.
When a Horse returns from Grass, although he may be free from Disease, he is not fittest for Work; but will require a Week’s hard Food, and must have Hay and Corn, and be gradually Exercised for several days before he be put to Hard Work, or he will be apt to empty himself too often, and is no Horse for a long Journey—unless you wish to make a Skeleton of him.
COLDS.
Young Horses are much more liable to Colds than those that are full grown.
The most common cause of Colds is riding or driving Horses till they are Hot, and then suffering them to stand still where the Air is cold and chilling.—Another very usual cause of Colds is removing a Horse out of a Hot Stable to a Cold one:—a Cold taken this way will be more violent, in the degree that a Horse has been highly fed and hotly clothed: this is the reason why many Horses catch such very severe Colds soon after they come out of a Dealer’s hands.—New-built Stables, before they have been well aired and seasoned, and even Old Stables, when they have stood long empty and grown damp, are dangerous to tender Horses, that have been kept warm.
WHEN A HORSE HAS CAUGHT A COLD,
for his Diet let him have the sweetest and best Hay, and scalded Bran and Water, with the chill taken off;—for his Physic, the following prescription: let him be prepared for it (if his Disorder permits) the two preceding days by some feeds of scalded Bran, which will render its operation not only more easy, but more effective:—for those Horses that have a narrow swallow, or that take Balls reluctantly, let the Ball be dissolved in a pint of Ale or Gruel, made just milk-warm.
HORSE BALLS
should be made into an Oval shape, and not exceed the size of a pullet’s Egg; when the dose is large, they may be made into two: they should be dipped in Oil, that they may slip down with ease; for striving much in thrusting down Balls, greatly increases a Horse’s antipathy to such things, and renders it troublesome to administer them.