Nor is it only to avoid the risk of food being stolen that a secure
horse-box is desirable, but for the further reason that if the horse
takes to scattering his food, the action is at once detected; and any
one who observes that happening may take it as a sign and symptom
either of too much blood,[3] which calls for veterinary aid, or of
over-fatigue, for which rest is the cure, or else that an attack of
indigestion[4] or some other malady is coming on. And just as with
human beings, so with the horse, all diseases are more curable at
their commencement[5] than after they have become chronic, or been
wrongly treated.[6]

[3] "A plethoric condition of the blood."

[4] {krithiasis}. Lit. "barley surfeit"; "une fourbure." See Aristot.
"H. A." viii. 24. 4.

[5] i.e. "in the early acute stages."

[6] Al. "and the mischief has spread."

But if food and exercise with a view to strengthening the horse's body
are matters of prime consideration, no less important is it to pay
attention to the feet. A stable with a damp and smooth floor will
spoil the best hoof which nature can give.[7] To prevent the floor
being damp, it should be sloped with channels; and to avoid
smoothness, paved with cobble stones sunk side by side in the ground
and similar in size to the horse's hoofs.[8] A stable floor of this
sort is calculated to strengthen the horse's feet by the mere pressure
on the part in standing. In the next place it will be the groom's