Of the Consumption of the Flesh, and how to make a lean Horse fat.
MArtin ••aith, that if a Horse take a great cold after a heat, it will cause his flesh to wast, and his skin to wax hard and dry, and to cleave fast to his sides, and he shall have no appetite unto his meat, and the fillets of his back will fall away, and all the flesh of his buttocks, and of his shoul∣ders will be consumed. The cure whereof is thus: Take two Sheeps heads unflead, boyl them in three gallons of Ale, or fair running water, until the flesh be consumed from the bones, that done, strain it through a fine cloth, and then put thereunto of Sugar one pound, of Cinamon two ounces, of Conserve of Roses, of Barberries, of Cherries, of each two ounces; and mingle them together, and give the Horse every day in the morning a quart thereof luke warm, untill all be spent: and after every time he drinketh, let him be walked up and down in the stable, or else abroad if the weather be warm, and not windy, and let him neither eat nor drink in two hours after, and let him drink no cold water, but luke-warm, the space of fifteen days, and let him be fed by little and little, with such meat as the Horse hath most appetite unto. But if the Horse he nesh and tender, and so wax lean without any apparent grief or disease, then the old Writers would have him to be fed now and then with parched Wheat, and also to drink Wine with his water, and eat continually Wheat-bran mingled with his provender, untill he wax strong; and he must be often dressed and trimmed, and ly soft, without the which things his meat will do him but little good. And his meat must be fine and clean, and given often and by little at once. Russius saith, that if a Horse eating his meat with good appetite, doth not for all that prosper, but is still lean: then it is good to give him Sage, Savin, Bay-berries, Earth-nuts, and Boares-grease, to drink with Wine: or to give him the intrails of a Barbel or Tench, with white Wine. He saith also that sodden Beans mingled with Bran and Salt, will make a lean Horse fat in very short space.