Your horse spends more time in his stable than you do in your house. You can come and go as you please, but your horse can leave the barn only when you choose to take him out. That is why proper care for him starts with the stable in which he's kept.

Always be sure that there is good drainage away from the barn so that when it rains there is no seepage or dampness collecting in the stable. If a stable is to be built especially for your horse, remember to have it construct­ed so that the doorways face toward the south, leaving the north side of the barn a solid wall. This prevents cold winter winds from chilling the horse and allows you to keep the stable door open even during the cold­er months without his being in a direct draft. A horse needs plenty of fresh air, so chances are that you need not worry about his being too cold. Unless you live in a region where the temperature drops way below freez­ing, you can leave the barn door part­ly open even during the winter. His winter coat will protect him, and he'll certainly be plenty warm enough if you put a blanket on him just as an extra precaution.

For added ventilation you may want your horse to have a window in his stall. If so, be sure the hinges are on the bottom of the window so that the top opens out into the stall. This forces the air to go up instead of directly onto the horse, and it keeps him from being exposed to a draft.

When summer comes, your horse can have the full advantage of those mild summer breezes if you leave his stall door open and put canvas web­bing, called a stall guard, across the doorway.

This gives him fresh air yet keeps him securely in his home.

The stall itself ought to be a box stall—called that simply because it has the shape of a square box—no smaller than 10 by 10 feet. Ideally, the floor of the stall should be of clay and around the inside perimeter planks should be laid—not nailed down—so as to prevent their becoming warped and allow you to clean under them once in a while. However, if the entire stall is planked, the boards should be placed very tightly together so your horse won't catch a shoe and possibly twist his leg. And before you put your horse in his stall for the night, always be certain to check its condition. A dog or rabbit may have gotten inside and could scare your horse badly in the dark. Remember—whenever a horse is in danger of being frightened, he is also in danger of being injured.

Spit and polish pay off in glossy coats, gleaming hoofs, and tangle-free manes and tails

The passageways or aisles of a stable are safest when they are made simply of dirt, raked and leveled often. Of course, concrete or wood planking is also used. But concrete is very slippery and should be rough­ened if a horse is to walk on it with­out risking injury.

Your stable, in order to be com­plete, needs a tack room—an area set aside for the bridle, saddle, blan­kets, medicines and other equipment. It need not be large but everything should have its place, and all articles should be stored so that you can find them at night with a flashlight.

Just as exercise is important, to your health and growth, so it is im­portant to the development of your horse. That's why you will want to have a paddock handy—a dry, level, fenced-in area where you can let your horse have a good workout. After all, there may be days when you won't be able to go for a ride. On those occasions, you should either longe your horse or simply turn him loose and let him romp around in the paddock for the afternoon.

To longe a horse, take the chain end (if your longe line doesn't have a chain, then take the end with the snap clasp on it) and run it through the brass ring on one side of the horse's halter, over his nose, and attach the snap to the brass ring on the other side of his halter. Lead the horse to the paddock, being sure to take a carriage whip or longe whip with you. Stand in the center of the paddock and slowly let out the longe line while you use the whip merely to shoo the horse away from you. Soon he will be making a circle around you, and when the line is fully extended, the horse will be able to trot and canter briskly while you do nothing more than stand in the center holding the line. And remember that you should change directions now and then so that the horse won't get dizzy or become sore in one shoulder.

After the horse has been ridden or longed, or become hot from racing around on his own, take care to cool him off properly before putting him back in his stall. Cooling a horse after exercising him is one of the truly vital aspects of caring for a horse (see p. 62). If you put the animal away while he's hot or even let him stand still when he's hot, you'll probably give your poor horse a good case of founder, or laminitis (see Chapter 6). Or, if you let the horse eat or drink his fill of water before he has cooled down, the horse is likely to get a serious, even fatal, case of colic.

It takes patience to get out all the knots

The way to cool a horse in warm weather is to wash him down with warm water mixed with disinfectant. Use a sponge and rub him well, so that all the caked sweat is removed. Then, with a scraper remove the excess water from the horse's body and proceed to walk him until he's dry and cool, allowing him to stop every ten minutes or so for a few sips of water. Remember not to let him drink his fill, no matter how hard he strains at the shank.

Naturally, if the weather is bitter cold or even mildly chilly, you should not wash a horse down when he's hot. If he gets sweated up in cool weather, simply go over him with a slightly damp sponge. Then put a blanket or a shaped blanket cover called a 'cool­er' over him and walk him, again permitting the horse to have a couple of sips of water ever so often.

To groom your horse well, you need a currycomb (a hard rubber comb is best), a 'dandy' (stiff) brush, a body brush, and a rub rag, mane comb and hoof pick. First, use the dandy brush to clean off the horse's face and head. Then, using brisk circular motions, apply the currycomb to the horse's neck and body—but not to the lower legs. After the horse has been thor­oughly curried, use the dandy brush again to whisk away the dirt you have removed from the horse's skin. Also use this brush to clean off the animal's lower legs. Then take the softer body brush and go over the horse once more to bring out the shine in his coat.

Next, you should comb out the horse's mane and tail with the mane comb. Don't worry about hurting him; there are no nerve endings in the roots of the hair in either mane or tail, so you can pull as hard as you have to. Then be sure to clean out your horse's hooves. Take the hoof pick and, with your back toward the horse's head so that you face the rear, pick up each hoof, place it between your knees and remove all the dirt that has become packed in the hoof.

Now you are virtually finished with the grooming of your horse. All that remains is to give him a final once­over with the rub rag. This will bring added gloss to his coat and give him a feeling of life and vigor.

As for feeding a horse—well, there's more to it than meets the eye. There are many different grades of feed and you'll want to be sure your horse is getting what's good for him. Oats are the main ingredient in any mixture, and they are the best supplement to hay. Good quality oats should weigh about forty pounds or more per bushel and should have a good bright color to them. The grains should be dry and brittle, never soggy.

Crushed oats are actually better for horses than whole oats—especially young horses. However, once oats have been crushed, you have no way of telling whether they are of good or poor quality. So the safest thing to do is to buy an oat crusher and crush your own whole oats. Crushed oats take up more bulk than whole oats, so the number of quarts you must give your horse differs. The average work­ing sixteen-hand horse should have between eight and twelve quarts of crushed oats—fed twice a day.

Remember, there isn't a great va­riety of things for your horse to eat and so, to prevent him from becoming bored with his food, you should see that he occasionally gets a taste of grains other than oats. Bran is one of the grains that he may have. Ac­tually, the outer covering of any grain is called bran, but the best for horses is wheat bran. Its value is that it produces a healthy, mild, laxative effect. You should mix about a quart of bran in with your horse's oats (that is, re­place a quart of oats with a quart of bran) two or three times a week. Add hot water to this mixture and allow it to stand for about ten minute6 before presenting your pet with a tasty damp mash.

Another food frequently given to horses is corn. It is rich in vitamin A and especially good for horses in winter because it produces body heat. When you feed your horse corn, be sure to give him corn on the cob in­stead of cracked corn. Cracked corn, if it is left to stand for a long time, loses its food value and turns rancid. Corn on the cob also gives your horse something to do during the lonely hours when you aren't with him. But make sure the cobs are large so there's no danger of the horse's choking. The best routine is to give the horse two ears of corn at night when there's nothing going on to excite him and he can munch them to his heart's content.

Barley and flaxseed are other sup­plements to a horse's basic grain— oats. But these should be used spar­ingly: only about a handful of each mixed with the rest of the feed in a cooked mash.

All horses find molasses very tasty and it's also high in food value. So if your horse is a finicky eater or if you just want to give him a treat, mix in some cane molasses with his feed.

Now, there are a number of con­flicting ideas on what type of manger should be used for feeding a horse. A manger is a large, sturdy bowl-like thing in which the horse's food is put. Many stables are equipped with iron mangers fitted into the corner of the stall. Other horsemen use wooden mangers, while still others maintain that a horse's feed should be placed on the floor because this allows him to stretch his neck and because eating from the ground is a horse's natural feeding position. The big fault with this last system is that worm eggs often collect on a stable floor, and if a horse is forced to nibble his food from the ground, he's likely to pick up some of the eggs.

The problem with a permanent manger—of wood or iron—affixed to the stall itself is that it is one more object on which a nervous horse can injure himself. Such dangers are the reason why many horsemen suggest the use of a relatively new type of manger which is made of rubber and can be removed from the stall when the horse has finished eating.

As we said earlier, grain is what gives a horse energy. But his real staff of life is hay, which consists of long grasses mown and dried. A horse can survive without grain but not without hay, and a horse will overeat grain but not hay. In fact, your horse should have hay in front of him at all times. Of course, this does not mean that you should overfeed him. Three good pitchforks full of hay should last him from one feeding to the next, and he should leave no more than about half a forkful uneaten.

The best kind of hay to feed your horse consists of timothy mixed with alfalfa and clover. You can tell a good bale of hay the moment it's tossed down from the hayloft. When it lands on the ground, it should be springy and bouncy; it shouldn't hit the ground like a sack of cement. When the bale is opened, the hay should have a fresh, grassy smell; it should not be moldy or musty. You can identify mold in hay easily be­cause it has a distinctive gray color and looks a bit like frost.

Again, some people feed a horse his hay in an iron manger—called a hay­rack—attached to the wall of the stall, while others simply toss it on the ground in one corner.

Aside from hay, two other things should be in your horse's stall and available to him at all times: water, and a block of salt (iodized, if you live in a part of the country where there is insufficient iron in the earth).

If for any reason you do not keep water before your horse at all times and must take him out of his stall to water him at a trough, try to water him frequently. And be sure to water him before, not after, feeding him in the morning and at night.

At night you'll want your horse to have a dry, clean, fresh bed to lie on. The bedding he'll like best will be of wheat straw. Only straw is used in fine stables because it's the cleanest of all beddings. Furthermore, there's no danger of a horse eating his straw as long as he has hay in front of him.

Young Thoroughbred gets exercise on long line. Whip is to keep him at brisk gait and moving in smooth circle

Of course, there are other beddings which are quite satisfactory. Peat moss, wood shavings and sawdust are all used, as well as pine needles, often found in southern stables. Because of its tar content, peat moss is especially good for horses with bad hooves. In the daytime, the bedding should be pitchforked out of the stall and allowed to dry in the sun so that the clean, dry parts can be re-used.

Now you are ready to give your horse the care he deserves. Make sure you have a good supply of feed and grain and bedding. Regular feed­ing is important to every horse and he must not be forced to go hungry because you have forgotten to check up on the food supply. And remem­ber, a feed man isn't as readily avail­able as the local delicatessen; it may be a matter of days before he can deliver your order. So always keep on the safe side and have plenty of food ready for the pet you love.

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