Hill while sick and on furlough being as high ranking officer as he was, was probably convalesing at a private estate and not in a "military" setting. His horse would have also been on this same estate and therefore probably had better forage and care in grooming than the normal military animals. This could account for the animals condition and appearence in March of 1865.

Estates to the West of Richmond and Petersburg by 1865 had seen very little of the Wars deprevations that were common in Petersburg and Richmond. Neither the Confederate nor the Yankee armies had been through that area of the state. The problem of the deprevation in the Confederate Army and Richmond was not a lack of supplies, but in a lack of the ability to get supplies from where they were, in the country, into the City and soldiers. And the fact that the areas immediately around these cities had been depleted long before the winter of 1864/65. But away from those Cities was another matter.