To sum up: the horse that is sound in his
feet, gentle and fairly speedy, has the will and the strength to stand work,
and, above all, is obedient, is the horse that will, as a matter of course,
give least trouble and the greatest measure of safety to his rider in
warfare. But those that want a lot of driving on account of their laziness,
or a lot of coaxing and attention on account of their high spirit, make
constant demands on the rider’s hands and rob him of confidence in moments
of danger.
When a man has found a horse to his mind,
bought him and taken him home, it is well to have the stable so situated
with respect to the house that his master can see him very often; and it is
a good plan to have the stall so contrived that it will be as difficult to
steal the horse’s fodderout of the manger as the master’s victuals from the
larder. He who neglects this seems to me to neglect himself; for it is plain
that in danger the master entrusts his life to his horse.
But a well-secured stall is not only good for preventing theft of the fodder
but also because one can see when the horse does not spill his food.In healthy excitement. See J. K. Anderson,
in J.H.S. 80.1-2. And on noticing this one may be
sure that either his body is overfull of blood and needs treatment or the
horse is overworked and wants rest, or that laminitisSo J. K. Anderson, Ancient Greek
Horsemanship, pp. 162, 207, not, as was once believed,
colic. or some other ailment is coming on. It is the same with
horses as with men: all distempers in the early stage are more easily cured
than when they have become chronic and have been wrongly treated.
Just as the food and exercise of the horse
must be attended to in order that he may keep sound, so his feet must be
cared for. Now damp and slippery floors ruin even well-formed hoofs. In
order that they may not be damp, the floors should have a slope to carry off
the wet, and, that they may not be slippery, they should be paved all over
with stones, each one about the size of the hoof. Such floors, indeed, have
another advantage because they harden the feet of the horses standing on
them.
To take the next point: the groom must lead
out the horse to clean him, and must loose him from the stall after the
morning feed, that he may return to his evening feed with more appetite. Now
the stableyard will be of the best form and will strengthen the feet if he
throws down and spreads over it four or five loads of round stones, the size
of a fist, about a pound in weight, and surrounds them with a border of iron
so that they may not be scattered. Standing on these will have the same
effect as if the horse walked on a stone road for some time every day.
When he is being rubbed down and teased with flies he is bound to use his
hoofs in the same way as when he walks. The frogs also are hardened by
stones scattered in this way.
The same care must be taken to make his mouth
tender as to harden his hoofs. This is done by the same methods as are
employed to soften human flesh.
It is a mark of a good horseman, in our
opinion, to see that his groom, like himself, is instructed in the way in
which he should treat the horse.
First then the man ought to know that he
should never make the knot in the halter at the point where the headstall is
put on. For if the halter is not easy about the ears, the horse will often
rub his head against the manger and may often get sores in consequence. Now
if there are sore places thereabouts the horse is bound to be restive both
when he is bridled and when he is rubbed down.
It is well also for the groom to have orders to remove the dung and litter
daily to one and the same place. For by doing this he will get rid of it
most easily and at the same time relieve the horse.
The groom must also know about putting the muzzle on the horse when he takes
him out to be groomed or to the rolling-place. In fact he must always put
the muzzle on when he leads him anywhere without a bridle.The muzzle appears on several Greek vases. The Greek
horse was given to biting. For the muzzle prevents him from
biting without hampering his breathing; and moreover, when it is put on, it
goes far towards preventing any propensity to mischief.
He should tie up the horse at a place above
the head, because when anything irritates his face, the horse instinctively
tries to get rid of it by tossing his head upwards; and if he is tied thus
he loosens the halter instead of breaking it by tossing up his head.
In rubbing the horse down, the man should
start at the head and mane; for if the upper parts are not clean, it is idle
to clean his lower parts. Next, going over the rest of his body, he should
make the hair stand up with all the dressing instruments,The instructions are rather vague. and get the
dust out by rubbing him the way the hair lies. But he should not touch the
hair on the backbone with any instrument; he should rub and smooth it down
with the hands the way it naturally grows; for so he will be least likely to
injure the rider’s seat.
He must wash the head well with water, for, as it is bony, to clean it with
iron or wood would hurt the horse. He must also wet the forelock, for this
tuft of hair, even if pretty long, does not obstruct his sight, but drives
from his eyes anything that worries them; and we must presume that the gods
have given the horse this hair in lieu of the long ears that they have given
to asses and mules as a protection to their eyes.
He should also wash the tail and mane, for growth of the tail is to be
encouraged in order that the horse may be able to reach as far as possible
and drive away anything that worries him, and growth of the mane in order to
give the rider as good a hold as possible.
Besides, the mane, forelock and tail have been given to the horse by the gods
as an ornament. A proof of this is that brood mares herding together, so
long as they have fine manes,Several
allusions to this erroneous belief of the Greeks are collected by the
commentators. are reluctant to be covered by asses; for which
reason all breeders of mules cut off the manes of the mares for covering.
Washing down of the legs we disapprove of; it
does no good, and the hoofs are injured by being wetted every day. Excessive
cleaning under the belly also should be diminished; for this worries the
horse very much, and the cleaner these parts are, the more they collect
under the belly things offensive to it;The
text shows that the parts washed were not thoroughly dried: indeed,
efficient drying cloths were not used. See Pollux 1.185.
and notwithstanding all the pains that may be taken with these parts, the
horse is no sooner led out than he looks much the same as an unwashed
animal. So these operations should be omitted; and as for the rubbing of the
legs, it is enough to do it with the bare hands.