Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece Part 6

Crede mihi, res est ingeniosa _dare_.

It is, no doubt, our duty to create the happiness and to prevent the misery of every living thing; but with our horse this is also a matter of _policy_. The colt should be caressed, rubbed, and spoken to kindly.

He should be fed from the hand with anything he may fancy, such as carrot, or apple, or sugar, and be made to come for it when whistled to or called by name.

"Quis expedivit Psittaco suum ?a??e?...

Venter."

[Sidenote: Fetch and carry.]

On an unlittered part of the stable, with the horse loose, throw pieces of carrot on the floor; he will learn to watch your hand like a dog.

Then tie a piece of carrot to a piece of stick. When he lifts this push a piece of carrot between his lips where there are no teeth, and take the stick from his mouth. He will soon learn to pick up your stick, whip, glove, or handkerchief, and to bring it in exchange for the reward; or when mounted, will put his head back to place it in your hand.

Stand on the outside of a door which opens towards you. Show the horse carrots through the opening: he will push the door open to get the carrot. By always repeating the word "door," he will soon open or shut a door at command, or a gate, even when mounted.

These may be "foolish things to all the wise," but nothing is useless which familiarises the horse, which increases the confidence and intimacy between him and his rider, or which teaches him to look to man for the indications of his will, and to obey them, whether from fear, interest, or attachment.

CHAPTER XI.

THE HORSE AND HIS STABLE.

Condition depends on food, work, and warmth.--So does the difference between the _breeds_ of horses.--The terseness of the Arab is the result of hard food.--So is that of our thorough-bred horse.--Different _breeds_ result from different natural conditions.--Crossing is only necessary where natural conditions are against you.--We do not attend enough to warmth.--We should get fine winter coats by warmth instead of singeing.--No fear of cold from fine coats.--The foot should be stopped with clay.--The sore ridge.--Stable breastplate.--The head-stall.--Never physic, bleed, blister, or fire.--Food for condition.--Rest for strains.--Nature for wounds.--Miles for shoeing.--The horse should have water always by him.--And should stand loose.--No galloping on hard ground, either by master or man.--He who cripples the horse kills him.

[Sidenote: Condition depends on food, work, warmth.]

For perfect health and condition three things are necessary, good food, work, warmth. For appearance a fourth may be added, cleaning. To suppose cleaning necessary for health is nonsense. Do you clean your sheep?--the stags in your park?--or the horses young and old in the breeding stud?

But, speaking liberally, a horse which is not worked cannot be clean and a horse which is worked and clothed cannot be dirty. A horse cannot be clothed too heavily summer or winter short of perspiring.

[Sidenote: So does the difference between breeds of horses.]

But it is not only that the present pa.s.sing condition of the horse depends solely on food, work, and warmth, but the permanent structure and stature of the horse depend on them; that is, the difference between what are called different _breeds_ of horses depends solely on these three things.

[Sidenote: The Arab the result of hard food.]

The Arab has a legend that his horse came from the stable of King Solomon. From the book of Kings it appears that Solomon was a great horse dealer. He imported them largely from Egypt, and he supplied certain kings with them. The merchandise which he received from Arabia is enumerated, and though it is not stated that he supplied horses in part payment for this merchandise, it is not improbable that he did so.

Speaking liberally, in Arabia the sole food of the horse is barley and straw; and the terseness of structure of the Arab may be said to be the result of three thousand years of hard food, if we reckon only from the _modern_ horse-keeper King Solomon. Fuerant autem in Egypto semper praestantissimi equi. And, shades of Bunsen! how many thousand years of hard food shall we add to the account for our horses' Egyptian ancestry?

Moses and Miriam sang their dirge on the sh.o.r.e of the Red Sea, in the reign of a _mediaeval_ Pharaoh, but their "early progenitors," as Mr.

Darwin would phrase it, might have enjoyed the barley of the _ancient_ King Menes. To hard food we must add early work, for the Arab is worked at two years old.

[Sidenote: So is our thorough-bred horse.]

Our thorough-bred horse, the descendant of the Arab, has been bred under the same natural conditions somewhat improved; that is, he has had _better_ hard food in unlimited quant.i.ty, he is earlier trained, the goodness of both sire and dam are proved to an ounce, and performance only is bred from. What is the consequence? In Evelyn's days Arabs and barbs raced at Newmarket. In later days, in the give and take plates there, winners are recorded of thirteen hands high, and the size of a stud horse of fourteen hands was advertised. Now, if a horse is under sixteen hands his size is not mentioned, and all the world is our customer at 5000 or 6000 a horse. And if more people had the skill to ride him, the merits of the thorough-bred horse as a hunter would be better known; though, indeed, under any circ.u.mstances, it is but the sweepings of the training stable which descends to the hunting field or private life.

[Sidenote: All _breeds_ result from natural conditions.]

The first axiom of the breeder is--est in equis patrum virtus--"Like produces like." But the second axiom is, "The goodness of the horse goes in at his mouth." The moral is, that like produces like only under like natural conditions. Turn out all the winners of the last ten years to breed on Dartmoor or in Shetland; what would be the betting about a colt or a filly so bred for the Derby or Oaks? The qualities of the race-horse--the acc.u.mulation of thousands of years--are lost in the first generation. Continue to breed him under these conditions, and the finest horse in the world, or that the world ever saw, becomes a Dartmoor or Shetland pony, worth 5 instead of 5000. Such are the changes worked by natural conditions; though with Mr. Darwin they count for nothing, or for next to nothing.

In the permanent fat pastures of the temperate and insular climes, the horse is built up to eighteen hands high, with a width and weight infinitely more than proportionate to his height, if we compare him to the southern horse. In the arid south, by no contrivance of man or "natural selection" can a horse of _weight_ be produced; though you may breed the terse horse of the south in the north by keeping him on terse food.

[Sidenote: Crossing not necessary.]

Crossing is only good where you wish to breed animals against natural conditions, as heavy horses on terse food, or Leicester sheep on the downs, or small Alderney cows on rich pastures. Then, the more the breed is crossed by animals bred under favourable natural conditions the better. No horse is so bred in-and-in as our thorough-bred horse and the Arab, and, of course, all _pure_ breeds must be bred in-and-in.

[Sidenote: We do not attend enough to warmth.]

The above effects of food and work are evident and well understood. But we do not sufficiently attend to warmth. We see that if the finest-coated Arab or thorough-bred horse is turned out year after year, he will get a winter coat as thick as a Shetland pony. But besides this, nature thickens his skin; the hide of the southern horse sells higher than that of the northern horse, because it is thinner. Change the skin of a horse for that of a rhinoceros, will he race or hunt as well?

[Sidenote: Warmth instead of singeing.]

Mr. Darwin does not seem to be aware that the horse changes his coat! or that there is any difference between his summer and winter coat! or that the new coat of the same individual comes thick directly he is exposed to cold. Fine winter coats should be got by clothing and warmth, not by singeing and cold. Starvation itself is not more terrible than cold.

Nature comes to the rescue of the out-door horse, but frightful enormities result from singeing horses in the winter, and leaving them to shiver in the stall inadequately clothed, to say nothing of the frightful figures which result.

[Sidenote: No fear of cold from fine coats.]

Fear not your horse suffering from cold because he is stripped to work.

Do not labourers strip to work? If a horse had a coat thick enough to keep him warm when at rest in winter, he could not hunt in this without being sweated to death any more than he could with four or five blankets on him.

[Sidenote: Stop foot with clay.]

Fire and water are equally disastrous to the horse's skin. Allow neither singeing nor washing above the hoof, and even this only for _appearance_. For there is no more reason for washing the horse's foot when he is kept in a stable, than there is when he is kept in a paddock.

But there are good reasons for keeping his foot full of dirt in the form of clay in the stable. Without it he fills his foot with the contents of the stall, which the shoe holds there. Now, which is worst for the foot, dirt or dung? Nothing can be more injurious to the frog than this.

But, alas! all is right, even with the master, provided that there is not a speck on the _outside_ insensible horn; and perhaps that is oiled and blacked (!) when the horse is brought out, while _inside_, the soft frog is left night and day soaked and saturated with the most frightful horrors. Hence the most fetid thrushes, and hence the contracted heel; for the contracted heel is the consequence, not the cause of the rotted frog.

The clay should not be mixed up with any of the horrors which grooms are so fond of. Besides defending the frog from the highly injurious juices of the stall this gives a _natural_ support to the interior of the foot which the _artificial_ shoe deprives it of.

[Sidenote: The sore ridge.]

Every joint of the backbone or spinal bone is surmounted by a _spine_.

These are sharp and topped with gristle, and will not support weight, still less attrition. Hence the necessity of the wooden _tree_ of a saddle, and even of a terret-pad to bridge the _ridge_. The old plan of fastening the horse's clothing, taken from the Persians, was by _rolling_ a long strip loosely round and round him; hence our name of _roller_ for the stable surcingle. This avoided injury to the ridge: the objection is the trouble. The bridge or _channel_ of our roller is _never_ effective, and _every_ stabled horse has a _sore ridge_. This is a great calamity to him as well as to his master.

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.

[Sidenote: Stable breastplate.]

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.

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.

[Sidenote: The head-stall.]