In another place, I have spoken of grass as an article of food. Its laxative and alterative properties are well known. So far as mere health is concerned, grass is the most salubrious food the horse can receive. When eaten where it grows, the horse is said to be turned out - to be getting a run at grass - or he is at grass. When cut, and consumed in the stable, the horse is said to be soiled.

Pasture Fields differ very widely. Some are composed of only two or three plants; others of an endless variety. Of the same field some parts are highly relished, and always cropped to the root; while many others, luxuriant, healthy, and, to the eye, attractive, are never touched, or eaten only when there is nothing else to eat. The soil is sometimes hard and injurious to naked feet, sometimes soft and marshy favorable to the growth of horn but not to a weak hoof. Pashires on the seashore, and occasionally laid under salt-water, are supposed to be more salubrious than others. They are termed salt-marshes, saltings, or ings. For horses worn down, by bad food, hard work, or disease, they are recommended by several authorities as peculiarly renovating, but their superiority is not unquestionable. Whatever be the nature of the soil and of the herbage, there should be abundance of grass, a supply of water, shelter from the sun and the storm, and fences to enforce confinement.

It is probable that grass eaten in the field produces quite the same effects as that eaten in the stable. But at pasture there are several agents in operation to which the stabled horse is not necessarily exposed. The exercise he must take, and the position his head must assume, in order that he may obtain food; the annoyance he suffers from flies; his exposure to the weather; the influence of the soil upon the feet and legs; and the quantity of food placed at his disposal, appear to me to be all the circumstances which make pasturing different from soiling. They deserve a little notice in detail.

The Exercise which the pastured horse must take as he gathers his food, varies according to the state of the herbage. When the ground is bare, the exercise may amount even to work, but to a sound horse it is never injurious; in cold weather it keeps him warm, or, at least, prevents him from becoming very cold. With a lame horse the case is different. In some lamenesses, the slow but constant exercise which a horse must take at grass is beneficial. It is so in the navicular disease, and in all other chronic diseases of the joints; of which, however, there are not many in the horse. The exertion which a bare pasture demands, is unfavorable to any sprain or lameness arising from disease in the ligaments and tendons. Lameness when very great, no matter where seated, forbids pasturing, even though the herbage be knee-high. The pain of standing, and moving on two or three legs, may be so great that the horse will be compelled to lie before he has obtained half a meal. In a rich pasture he will lose flesh, and in a bare one he will starve. I have seen groggy horses, even where the grass was abundant, so much reduced that they could hardly move.

They could not stand till they obtained sufficient food, and they could obtain none when lying.

It is for slight lameness only that horses should be turned out; and the pastures should be such as to afford sufficient nutriment, without giving the horse more exercise than is good for the disease.

The legs of fast-working horses often become tumid, shape less, tottering, bent at the knee, and straight at the pasterns These always improve at pasture, as, indeed, they do in the stable, or loose box, when the horse is thrown out of work Grazing exercise does not appear to be unfavorable to their restoration; but when the knees are very much bent, the horse is unfit for turning out; he can not graze; when his head is down he is ready to fall upon his nose, and it costs him much effort to maintain his equipoise.

Young horses in good condition take a good deal of exercise in playing with their companions. I have never known any take too much. Some are sprained or otherwise injured, in galloping or leaping; but these are the accidents of pasturage, not the necessary concomitants.

The Position of the Head in the act of grazing is unfavorable to the return of blood from the brain, from the eyes, from all parts of the head. Horses that have had staggers* or bad eyes, those that have recently lost a jugular vein, and those that have any disease about the head - strangles, for instance - should not be sent to pasture. The disease becomes worse, or if gone, it is apt to return. Even healthy horses are liable to attacks on the brain when turned to grass, particularly when the weather is hot, and the herbage abundant. I have not met with such cases, but they are somewhere on record.

It has been said that horses prefer feeding from the ground, to feeding from the manger; but that is not true. Colts are indifferent about it. They have always been accustomed to grazing, and the act gives them no uneasiness. But horses that have been more than a year in the stable, and especially those that have been reined up in harness, often experience considerable difficulty in grazing. The neck is rigid, and the muscles which support the head are short. It is often several weeks before an old coach-horse can graze with ease. For the first two or three hours after turning out he seems to manage tolerably well, but subsequently he gets wearied, and may be seen in a ditch, feeding off the banks. He loses flesh during the first two or three weeks, but afterward he acquires greater facility in grazing. Some, however, do not. I have known one or two remain out for a month, and require to be taken home to prevent death by starvation. Very old coach-horses that have short, stiff necks, should not be turned out when they can be kept in.

If they must go, they should be watched, lest they die of want.

* Phrenitis or apoplexy.