to water more frequently, being, like ourselves or any other animal, liable from some cause-some slight derangement of the stomach, for instance-to be more thirsty at one time than another; and it is a wellknown fact that, where water is easily within reach, these creatures never take such a quantity at a time as to unfit them for moderate work at any moment. If an arrangement for continual access to water be not convenient, horses should be watered before every feed, or at least thrice a-day, the first time being in the morning, an hour before feeding (which hour will be employed in grooming the beast); and it may be observed that there is no greater aid to increasing their disposition to put up flesh, than giving them as much water as they like before and after every feed.

A horse should never be watered when heated, or on the eve of any extraordinary exertion. Animals that are liable to colic or gripes, or are under the effect of medicines, particularly such as act on the alimentary canal, and predispose to those affections, should get water with the chill off.

Watering in Public Troughs, or places where every brute that travels the road has access, must be strictly avoided. Glanders, farcy, and other infectious diseases may be easily contracted in this way.

GRAZING.

The advantage of grazing, as a change for the better in any, and indeed in every, case where the horse may be thrown out of sorts by accident or disease, becomes very questionable, on account of the artificial state in

which he must have been kept, to enable him to meet the requirements of a master of the present day in work. If the change be recommended to restore the feet or legs, this object may be attained, and much better, by keeping the creature in a loose-box without shoes, on a floor covered with sawdust or tan, kept damp as directed (page 10), to counteract whatever slight inflammation may be in the feet and legs, or, best of all, covered with peat-mould, as this does not require to be damped, and the animal can lie down on it; besides, the properties of the peat neutralise the noxious ammonia, and it does not consequently require to be so often renewed. In the loose-box also he can take quite as much exercise as is necessary for an invalid intended to be laid up, and there he can be supplied with whatever grain, roots, or succulent food may be deemed necessary.

As for any other advantage to be derived from a run at grass, unless for the purpose of using the herb as an alterative, I never could see it and even this end, unless the horse has a paddock to himself, can hardly be gained; for if there are too many beasts for the production of the ground, the fare must be scanty, and each animal half starved.

The disadvantages of changing a horse to grass from the artificial state of condition are the following:—

1. That condition is sure to be lost (at least as far as it is necessary to fit for work, especially to go across country at a hunting pace, with safety to himself and his rider), and not to be regained for a considerable time, and at great cost.

2. The horse is exceedingly liable to meet with accident from the playfulness or temper of his companions.

3. Worms of the most dangerous and pertinacious description are picked up nowhere but at grass.

4. Many ailments are contracted from exposure and hardship or bad feeding; and owing to the animal being removed from under immediate inspection, such ailments gain ground before they are observed. Moreover, at grass the horse is more exposed to contagious and epidemic diseases.

5. Horses suffer great annoyance from flies in summer time, not having long tails like horned cattle to reach every part of their body; and wherever any superficial sore may be present, the flies are sure to find it out.

As to aged animals, it is sheer cruelty (practised by some masters with the best intentions and worst possible results) to turn them out to grass. Such creatures have probably been accustomed in the earlier part of their lives to warm stables, their food put under their noses, good grooming, and proper care. You might just as well turn out a gentleman in his old age among a tribe of friendly savages, unclad and unsheltered, to exist upon whatever roots and fruits he could pick up, as expose a highly-bred and delicately-nurtured old horse to the vicissitudes and hardships of a life at grass.

The principle of this system is that of overpowering the horse that may in some instances have even become dangerous and useless, from having learned the secret

that his strength gives him an advantage over his master-man. Unconsciously deprived of his power of resistance, his courage vanishes; the spirit which rose against all accountable efforts to subdue it, that would scorn to yield to overweight, pace, work, or any other evidence of man's power, and which in the well-dispositioned animal causes him to strain every nerve to meet what is required of him rather than succumb, is by Rarey's system subdued through a ruse so effected that the power which overwhelms all the creature's efforts at resistance appears to originate and be identified with the man who can thus, for the first time, take liberties with him, which he has lost the power of resenting; and man thenceforward becomes his master. The method pursued by Mr Rarey in subduing such a vicious and ungovernable horse as Cruiser, is this: Placing himself under a waggon laden with hay, to which the animal is partly coaxed, partly led by guideropes, and stealing his fingers through the spokes of the waggon-wheel, he raises and gently straps up one fore leg, and fastens a long strap round the fetlock of the other, the end of which he holds in his hand and checks when necessary. The beast, thus unconsciously tampered with, is quite disposed to resent in his usual style the subsequent impertinent familiarities of his tamer; but being by the foregoing precautions cast prostrate on his first attempt to move, and finding all his efforts to regain his liberty and carry out reprisals abortive, worn-out and hopeless, he at length yields himself helplessly to his victor's obliging attentions, of sitting on him as he lies, drumming and fiddling in his ears, &c., and is thenceforward man's obedient and tractable servant.

There is no doubt that Mr Rarey's plan of thus overcoming the unruly or vicious beast by mild but effectual means, is the right one to gain the point, as far as it goes; but breaking him in to saddle or draught, improving his paces, or having ability in riding or driving any horse judiciously, must be considered another affair, and only to be acquired through more or less competent instruction, and by practice combined with

taste.

In training, the use of a dumb jockey* * will be found most serviceable to get the head into proper position, and to bend the neck. Two hours a-day in this gear, while the horse is either loose in a box or fastened to the pillar-reins if in a stall, will not at all interfere with his regular training, exercise, or work, and will materially aid the former result.

I greatly advocate the use of the dumb jockey without springs, even with formed horses, who, being daily used to it, need no such adjuncts as bearing-reins, but will arch their necks, work nicely on the bit, and exhibit an altered show and style in action that is very admirable in a gentleman's equipage.

Should my reader be much interested in breaking-in rough colts, I recommend him to consult 'Stonehenge,' by J. H. Walsh, F.R.C.S., editor of the 'Field.'

Training for Draught.—Before the first trial in the break-carriage, give your horse from half-an-hour to an hour's quiet ringing in the harness, to which he should have been previously made accustomed by wearing it for a couple of hours the two or three preceding days. The first start should be in a regular break, or strong

* The old-fashioned pattern, with leather gear, is, after all, the best, as proved by the most practical men of the day.