320 Feeds and Feeding. 



but good food, pure air, plenty of exercise, with due attention to 

 cleanliness and regularity in feeding and watering; and when all 

 these things are attended to properly the drugs and nostrums that 

 stable lore prescribes as t good for a horse ' would be better thrown 

 to the dogs. " 



502. Food for the mare. While in foal the mare does not 

 necessarily require food different in quality from that fed at other 

 times, but the quantity should be somewhat larger, all conditions 

 being equal. Those used for breeding purposes only will do well 

 without grain when on nutritious pasture, but if the grass is in- 

 sufficient, some additional feed in the shape of grain should be 

 given. Working mares are more sure of bringing good foals 

 than those idle in pasture, provided judgment is used in handling 

 and feeding. They should be worked with regularity, the labor 

 never being severe or taxing, nor should the nature of the work 

 ever be such as to make long intervals between feeds, for then 

 great hunger may be followed by surfeiting. Idleness is the bane 

 of horse rearing and should be avoided whenever possible. To 

 place the mare in a box-stall and confine her there without suit- 

 able exercise, while supplied an abundance of feed, is to adopt a 

 practice only too common and one carrying large risk. Abun- 

 dance of exercise must always go with liberal feeding. 



As to the kind of feed for the mare in foal, oats lead, yet shorts 

 and bran may be fed with economy and beneficial results; mashes 

 can be given occasionally, and where possible cooked feed may be 

 supplied at night, three times a week. Through the use of proper 

 foods the bowels will be kept in a natural condition, and should 

 be a little loose rather than otherwise at time of parturition. 



503. Feeding the trotter. The single requisite of speed makes 

 the carrying of every pound of useless body weight, and more 

 especially of feed, a serious matter in the management of the trot- 

 ting horse. More important than this, even, is the effect of the 

 food upon the character of the muscles formed from it, and espe- 

 cially upon the nerve and mettle of the horse. For help in this 

 line we can draw from no better source than Hiram Woodruff, * 

 who tells how the trotter should be fed and managed. 



1 The Trotting Horse of America, pp. 90-105. 



