Part 6 (2/2)

[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 s.h.i.+ver 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 was.h.i.+ng above the hoof, and even this only for _appearance_. For there is no more reason for was.h.i.+ng 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.]

<script>