From September to March, never feed your horse at noon. It is good to
start early in the morning. When you stop to eat breakfast, unloose your
girt, and, if the weather be warm, take off the saddle. If you stop for
dinner, do the same. Let your horse drink as often as he pleases; but
give him nothing to eat, till you stop at night, or, rather, a little
before sun-set. When you stop, it is good, if your horse is warm, to let
him walk about a few minutes, before you take off the saddle. When he
gets perfectly dry, have him curried; and, in very warm weather, bathe
him. Give him fodder for an hour before you give him his corn, if you
feed with corn; but if with oats or barley, you may give either to him
at the same time that you give him his hay. When you start in the
morning, go on rather moderately till ten or eleven o’clock. Then you
may go a little faster, and increase your pace in the afternoon. When
you stop at night, give your horse as much corn and fodder as he will
eat. Let hay or fodder remain in the rack all night, but not the corn.
Give him twenty or thirty ears, if he will eat so many, before you
start. From April to the first of September, feed a little at noon.
Clean the mud out of your horse’s hoofs, every now and then; that is,
every morning, or second morning; and, if you perceive that your horse
often gets balls of hard, dry earth in them, rub soft soap upon the
inside of them, and that will prevent the mud from sticking.