Chains are more durable, and that is all that can be said in their favour, except that they may be necessary for a few vicious devils who are up to the trick of severing the rope or leather with their teeth.
See that the log is sufficiently heavy to keep the rope or leather at stretch, and that the manger-ring is large enough to allow the fastening to pass freely. If the log is too light, or the manger-ring too small, the likely result will be that the log will remain close up under the ring, the fastening falling into a sort of loop, through which the horse most probably introduces his foot, and, in his consequent alarm and efforts to disentangle his legs, chucks up his head, and away he goes on his side, gets “halter-cast,” most likely breaks one of his hind legs in his struggles to regain his footing, or at least dislocates one of their joints.
CLOTHING.
Opinions differ materially as to the amount of clothing that ought to be used in the stable. My view of the matter is, that a stable being, as it should be, thoroughly ventilated, necessitates the horses in it being to a certain extent kept warm by clothing. An animal that has not been divested of his own coat by clipping or singeing, will require very little covering indeed; for nature’s provision, being sufficient to protect him out of doors, ought surely to suffice in the stable, with a very slight addition of clothing. If he has been clipped or singed, covering enough to make up for what he has lost ought to be ample: by going beyond this the horse is only made tender, and more susceptible of the influences of the atmosphere when he comes to be exposed to it with only a saddle on his back.
In parts of North America, I have observed, where the stables are built roughly of wood, with many fissures to admit the weather, horses are seldom, if ever, sheeted. They are certainly rarely divested of their coats; but during work, as occasion may require, it is usual for the rider, when stopping at any place, to leave his horse “hitched” (as they call it) to any convenient post or tree, in all weathers, and for any length of time, and these horses scarcely ever catch cold.
The best Sheet is formed of a rug (sizeable enough to meet across the breast and extend to the quarters), by simply cutting the slope of the neck out of it, and fastening the points across the breast by two straps and buckles.
The Hood need only be used when the horse is at walking exercise, or likely to be exposed to weather, or for the purpose of sweating, when a couple of them, with two or three sheets, may be used.—[See page 32.]
Horse-clothing should be, at least once a-week, taken outside the stable, and well beaten and shaken like a carpet.
Rollers should be looked to from time to time, to see that the pads of the roller do not meet within three or four inches (over the backbone),—in other words, there should be always a clear channel over it, nearly large enough to pass the handle of a broom through, so as to avoid the possibility of the upper part of the roller even touching the sheet over the spinal ridge, which, if permitted, will be sure to cause a sore back, to the great injury of the horse and his master, arousing vicious habits in the former to resent any touch, necessary or unnecessary, of the sore place on so sensitive a part, and rendering him irritable when clothing, saddling, or harnessing, or if a hand even approach the tender place.