In another place I have stated the immediate effects of muscular exertion. Fatigue, the result of exertion, consists in a particular state of the muscles, the joints, the sinews, and some other parts. Action exhausts the muscles, consumes the blood, the joint-oil, and other fluids connected with motion. Maintained for a certain time, action also inflames the muscles, the sinews, and the joints. During repose, these parts should be partly or entirely restored to that condition which is most favorable to exertion. But if the rest be disturbed, or its proper duration abridged, the consequences are more serious than people generally imagine. The loss of one night's rest renders the horse unfit for work next day. There are many cases, however, in which the horse is almost never permitted to enjoy complete repose. He is frequently compelled to stand when he ought to be lying. The consequences are precisely the same as those arising from excess of work.

The horse does not sleep much, perhaps little more than four or five hours out of the twenty-four. He can rest, however, pretty well when he is standing, and still better when he is lying, though he should not sleep.

By a peculiar arrangement in the horse's limbs, he is able to obtain more rest while standing than any animal I know of; yet, without recubation, his repose is never completed. He may be kept always on his feet, yet he never works so well, nor lasts so long, as when he lies six or eight hours daily. The legs fail, the horse becomes stiff; his joints and sinews suffer from repeated slight attacks of inflammation which at last produce lameness. The work is blamed, and very often work is the only cause; but sometimes it is the want of rest, not excess of work, that does the mischief.

* Complete Grazier, p. 198.

The bed should be well made, the stall sufficiently wide, and the stable quiet. There should be no work going on, nor any person admitted to the stable while the horse is reposing, nor while he is likely to be lying. Two horses should never stand all night in one stall, as often happens at crowded tables. Neither can lie, and that rest which either could take standing, is broken by the other.

Some horses never lie, they sleep standing, or reclining against the travis. A few sink on their knees, and sleep for a few minutes in that position. Some have a stiffness of the back, which renders them unable to rise without assistance, and therefore they forbear to lie, assistance not always commig when they want it. Others have got a fright in a narrow stall, which may have prevented them from rising easily, or at all. This is remembered for ever, and the horse stands always, however wide his stall may be made. Others still, refuse to lie after having been halter-cast and severely injured; they will not lie while the head is tied.

Some of these horses may, however, be induced to lie. Try a loose box, where the horse will have plenty of room, and need not be tied up. If that can not be procured, put two gangway bales to his stall; these will confine him to it, and his head may be free. His stall should be wide.

If the horse can not be induced to lie, he may be supported while standing. Place him in slings. This apparatus consists of a broad canvass-belt, which goes under the belly, extending from the points of the elbows to the sheath. At each extremity there is a strong shaft, or staff, to which the suspending ropes are attached, and carried to the roof, or stall-posts. A breast-strap and a breechin are necessary to keep the belt in its place. The horse is not suspended. The belt is fixed close to the belly. When the horse is disposed to rest his legs, he has only to bend them, and the belt receives his body. Whenever he is tired of this support, he again stands on his legs. The breechin should be strong and broad, for many horses throw as much weight upon that as upon the belt. The belt is commonly made out of a canvasa sack, stuffed with hay, and stitched like a mattress.