Something must be allowed for bran, linseed, and carrots; these may be set down at about 2s. per week.
Groom’s wages must be added. Suppose he receives 25s. per week, and only has one horse to look after, that one horse will cost the owner 39s. 3d. at the lowest estimate; if there be 2 horses, they will each stand at 26s. 9d., and so on. Shoeing may be set down roughly at 3l. per annum; the tax for a groom is 15s. per year; the veterinary surgeon may have to be called in occasionally; while coals and lights must not be left out of sight. From a money point of view, therefore, keeping horses in a private stable is, generally speaking, no cheaper than sending them to livery at 30s. per week; but the advantage is that they are generally better done at home. (Field.)
Horses need well-ventilated stables, free from draught and damp. The floor should be smooth and nearly level. It should be well drained and light, for sudden change from darkness to light is trying to the eyes, and a damp, offensive odour is injurious. Then, again, the bedding and litter should be carefully separated from that which is foul. They should be well shaken up and dried, and the stall should be thoroughly cleansed; and when the stable is empty, let in plenty of fresh air. A horse’s stall should be large enough to allow him to lie down comfortably in any position. A tired horse will be glad to lie down with his legs stretched out if he has room; but if you cannot give him a loose box, then a light halter block should be used, and care taken to arrange the halter so that it may travel freely to allow the head to come easily to the litter, for rest and sleep are as necessary as food and water. If a horse comes to the stable wet, he should be rubbed dry before the blanket is put on. If he is standing about in the cold, it should be put on. The legs should be rubbed, and the hoofs always examined for stones. When dressed and made comfortable, leave a bucket of chilled water in the box, which should be filled up with cold the last thing at night when closing the stables.
Cleaning.—One of the most important things in the management of farm horses is their cleaning, and yet nothing is more neglected. The horse should never be cleaned or harnessed while it is eating breakfast. Let horses eat their food in peace, for many, from sanguine temperament or greed, bolt their oats when handled during the time of feeding. Harness can be quickly enough put on after the feed is eaten, and time should then be taken to comb the mane and tail, and use a wisp of straw on the body and legs. When the horses come in at dinner-time, they should at once be unharnessed. The feed is then to be given, and before the harness is again put on, the horse should be thoroughly rubbed down with a wisp of straw or hay. If the horses are very warm on coming in, they should be rubbed down immediately after the removal of the harness.
The cleaning or grooming, which should be done at night, consists first in currying the horse with a currycomb to free him of the dirt adhering to the hair, and which being now dry, is easily removed. A wisping of straw removes the roughest of the dirt loosened by the currycomb. The legs ought to be thoroughly wisped, not only to make them clean, but to dry up any moisture that may have been left in the evening; and at this time the feet should be picked clean by the foot-picker—i.e. an iron instrument made for the purpose—of any dirt adhering between the shoe and the foot. The brush is then to be used to remove the remaining and finer portions of dust from the hair, which is cleared from the brush by a few rasps along the currycomb. This wisping and brushing, if done with some force and dexterity, with a combing of the tail and mane, should render the horse pretty clean. The skin of the farm horse should at all times be clean if not sleek, and a slap of the hand upon the horse will show if there is loose dust in the hair. The currycomb should not be used below the knees, as it is apt to cause injury. For cleaning the legs and feet, nothing is better than the water brush.
At morning stables, after the carriage horse is “mucked out,” the next step is to quarter him over and pick and wash his feet out. The first quartering may be done with an old water brush, and means roughly removing from the horse with water alone anything imparted to his side by manure. By the time the horse has done feeding the quartering will have nearly dried. If the animal is for morning exercise the above is sufficient. The dressing proper can be done when he comes home. If he is for hunting or hacking that day a good stableman will set to work at him as soon as the horse has finished his feed. If he is a grey, and has become stained with manure in the night, the groom should well rub in, with his hands only, plenty of common brown soap (not soft soap), and use plenty of tepid water in doing it. Then take a clean water brush, and let his shoulder go at his work until the stain is out. This is easily seen, because if the man finds no discoloration in the water in the bucket when he has sponged (with a perfectly clean sponge) all the soap off, no particle of stain will remain. If the water used in stable work is hard, a little soda dissolved in it will cause the soap to lather well. The horse should be tied up short while being washed, and after the sponging the wet places should be thoroughly dried with a rubber, which should be cleanliness itself. Worn-out table linen makes the best stable rubbers, the older the better. When the washed parts are quite dry, the horse should be well dressed with a clean horse-brush; one with any old dirt or grease in it will make fresh stains. After dressing with the horse brush, his coat should be again well rubbed the right way with another dry rubber fresh from the towel-horse and the saddle-room fire. Lazy stablemen are in the habit of using powdered charcoal to remove stains from grey horses. The practice is idle and dirty. In the case of clipped horses, stable stains can be removed in a very short time, and not much more is requisite with that of a well-done horse with his summer coat on. When the coat is shifting, a little more labour is requisite.
Driving.—Strict adherence to the rule of the road will not necessarily protect a driver from being liable for the result of a collision between another vehicle and his own. Sometimes he may be held to be negligent because he remained on the near side, and did not pull out of the way, even into the opposite gutter, if necessary. It is not possible to say what acts constitute negligent driving; the nearest rule that can be given is that drivers should act as reasonable men in the management of their vehicles. If they do anything that a reasonable man would not do, or omit to do anything that he would, then they are guilty of negligence; but acts that would amount to negligence in one case would not necessarily be so in another. Negligence on the part of a driver is not excused merely because the victim was also guilty of some degree of negligence, provided of course that it did not contribute to the immediate cause of the accident. If, however, the proximate cause of an accident be a driver’s unskilfulness, the injured driver may not recover, although the primary cause of the accident was the wrong-doing of some one else. If a man leave a horse and cart standing in the street without any one to look after them, and the horse, either by itself, or on being struck by a passer-by, backs into the window of a shop, and damages goods, the owner of the cart, having chosen to leave it in the street, must take the risk of any mischief. In cases where there is negligence on both sides, the rule to be deduced is, that a person injured by the negligent driving of another, cannot recover damages if but for own negligence, the accident would not have happened at all. Sometimes it may happen that a person who is driven into, or over, must bring his action, not against the driver of the vehicle inflicting the injury, but against a third party; as, for instance, if one carriage be so improperly driven as to compel a second carriage to take such a line as to make it collide with a third, the driver of the first carriage would be liable to the owner of the third. Lastly, in a pure accident, in which no one has been guilty of negligence, the injured party has no right of action at all. It is not because a man’s horse runs away, or becomes unmanageable, that the owner is to be responsible for any harm that may be sustained by a member of the public; a mutilated person is always entitled to sympathy, but not invariably to damages. (Field.)
Hiring.—Horses, carriages, or both, may be hired under 3 conditions: (a) Where the hired property remains on the owner’s premises; (b) Where, during the period of hire, it is transferred to the premises of the hirer; (c) Where it is hired from the owner for a particular journey, and returned to him as soon as this is performed. Under either of the 2 first conditions, the hiring may be for a period exceeding a year, or for any shorter time. All contracts not to be performed within one year from the time of making must be in writing and signed. An agreement made on the 1st of May, 1887, to hire horses for one year from that day, will terminate on 1st of May, 1888, and therefore be completed within the year, and so not require writing; but if the agreement (made on the 1st) be for a year’s hire, to commence on the 20th of May, the contract will not be completely performed until the 20th of May, or 20 days after the expiration of the year, consequently writing will be needed.
The chief inducement to hire instead of buying carriages and horses is, that by payment of an inclusive charge, the trouble and annoyance inseparable from keeping a private stable are avoided. The owner of a carriage let out to hire undertakes, in return for the sum paid, to do certain repairs, varying according to circumstances.
Most coachmakers now bind themselves to execute only such repairs as may be rendered necessary by fair wear and tear; accidents, however arising, being expressly exempted. The result is that, in the event of a “smash,” the hirer has to pay the owner for the damage; and, if the former or his servant is in fault, the loss falls on him; while, if the other vehicle be in the wrong, the hirer has to get his damages from its proprietor—the owner of the hired carriage being indemnified either way. If the carriage is bought out-and-out during the period for which it was originally hired, the seller is not bound to repair gratis after he has sold it.