A groom’s bedroom is a decidedly necessary addition to a stable,—horses so frequently become ill in the night, or fall to kicking, or get halter-cast when tied up, or contrive to break loose and go wandering about the stable,—in fact, so many things, that this special chamber ought never to be left unprovided, or untenanted. I speak now of establishments where a number of horses are kept; where there is only one, or perhaps two, and that they are properly seen to the last thing at night, there will not, as a rule, be any actual necessity for a groom to sleep on the premises.
A common appendage to many country stables is a water-pond. It is usually made to serve for washing and watering the horses, washing the carriage, bathing the fowls, and drowning supernumerary pups, kittens, and stray cats. I strongly recommend its removal—or at all events, the removal of any servant who leads a horse to drink at it, fetches water from it for feeding purposes, or drags any vehicle through it for the ready disposal of the mud upon the wheels.
Harness and saddle rooms should be entirely distinct from stables. They should contain stoves or fireplaces, and should be perfectly dry, lightsome, and well aired. There should be an abundant supply of racks for whips, &c., brackets for saddles, pegs for bridles, a good wide shelf for miscellaneous articles, and a lock-up press for horse-clothing, leg bandages, and other matters of a like description.
A cat about a stable is a decided acquisition; therefore secure a respectable grimalkin of steady, sober habits, and give her the run of the place. She and the horses will be fast friends in a very short space of time; she will get her own living, with the addition of a trifle of milk now and again, and will ask no warmer bed in winter than the sleek back of one of her equine companions.
FAST FRIENDS.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DOCTORING.
In all cases where a horse falls sick, or meets with an accident, the proper course to pursue is to send at once for a thoroughly competent veterinary surgeon. To delay about doing so may be to lose a valuable animal, or at all events to involve a much longer attendance than would otherwise have been necessary, and therefore the mistaken effort at economy which tardiness generally represents, will, in nine cases out or ten, be entirely defeated.
There may be times, however—in country districts, for instance—when to send for a surgeon will involve a very long and wearisome delay, and when to keep an ailing or injured animal altogether without assistance or relief until his arrival, may be productive of most serious results; it will, therefore, be apparent that, although a little knowledge is in many instances esteemed “a dangerous thing,” it is certainly not so with regard to the subject which we have now in hand. For my own part, my knowledge of horse-doctoring is decidedly limited, and my surgical education still more incomplete, yet there have been occasions on which I was able to prescribe for horses, both my own and others’, with perfect success, and to keep pain and sickness at all events at bay, until the arrival of a qualified V.S. To sit down and do nothing, or to cry and moan over some injured favourite, is a very feeble and ineffectual mode of action; far better be up and doing: provided always that you know what to do, and do it in the right way.