The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-01-17
M;Mykt 11,atAt.
STABLING.

DR.. G. B. Loring, in Murray's book,
"The Perfect Horse" says: that the
folly of bad feeding is no greater than
the folly of bad stabling. The practice
of providing warm and tightly-built
stables for young colts is as injurious
to them as forcing their growth by
heavy feed. A colt requires fresh air !;
and, if he is furnished with an opportu-
nifty, he will be sure to get it. His
lungs are the largest part of his inter-
nal organs; and he will provide for
them, if there is any way to do it
Give him the best and the warmest box
in the world, and he will leave it for
the invigorating influences of the north
ern blasts in winter, and for the cooling
and indurating effects of a coating OF
snow and hail. He seems to under
stand by instinct, that if he confines
himself to the hot air of an elaborate,
wellfnished, model stable, his energies
will wilt and fade. He seems to know
that a glossy, shining coat is to him
sort of white wall of whited sep
ulchre,-pleasing without, but within
full of all equine disabilities and so
he only asks for room to stretch his
growing limbs, and roof sufficient to
shield him from the storm, undisturbed
if he should see star through the
crevice above him, and feel the fresh
breeze whistling through a crack by
his side. He wants well-ventilated
stable, and chance to get out OF 1t
whenever he has desire to do so.
And, above all things, let him stand on
the ground, if possible, while in his
box; and, at any rate, in a yard into
which his box opens. A floor, espec-
tally wooden floor, is bad enough for
mature working horse; but to colt
it is almost destruction. l have no
shadow of doubt that we ruin thousands
of horses feet in this country by our
plank floors. The wood, when dry, is
a non-conductor of heat, and tends to
keep the hoof above its natural temper
AZURE, and to remove from it all its
natural moisture; and, when wet, it
has a tendency to rise above the sur
rounding temperature by fermentation.
Wet or dry, therefore, wood, whether
in the form of q plank-foor or of saw
dust bedding, is very injurious to the
horses foot. And so thoroughly con-
WINGED of this am l, that always pro-
vide brick floors for all that portion of
the stall which is occupied by the
horses fore-feet,-a practice which has,
with the aid of tar-ointment, protected
ME, for more than twenty years of hard
driving on hard roads, from sore-toed
horses, and has sent out of my stables
foot which every farrier in town rec
ognizes the instant he puts his buttrlce
into it, For the feet, then, of the colt
and the idle horse, furnish the earth as
standing place; for the feet of the
Westinghouse, furnish brick or stone
floor. By such floor alone can you
secure to your colt good foot; and, in
this way alone, moreover. can you be
sure of giving him a good leg, we'll
shaped ankle, and firm and substan-
tial knee. l know not how it is, but
the misshapen ankles and shaky knees
which come out of hot stables with
wooden floors among the colts which
have wintered there, constitute one of
the peculiar phenomena of the business
of rearing these animals. But so it is
and I urge upon you all, whether you
fear or trust them, to give them the
solid ground to stand on, whenever it
is practicable, in their youth, and any
thing but wood in their days of matu-
rity and toll