88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



ence of the treatment shows how very unnatural is the state 

 of our civilized horses. 



The task of providing horses with food is more consider- 

 able than in .the case of any of our other domesticated creat- 

 ures. By nature the animal is a frequent feeder, and does 

 not well endure long fasts. Its stomach is rather small for 

 the size of the body, and the digestive process appears to be 

 more than usually rapid. A mounted animal, when taxed to 

 its utmost, should be fed four or five times a day, and with 

 less than three good meals is apt to break down. No such 

 care in the matter of provender is necessary in the case of 

 the other members of man's animal family. The contrast 

 between the physiological conditions of the camel and those 

 of the horse are fully recognized by the Arabs, in their almost 

 complete neglect of the individuals of the one species and 

 their exceeding care of the other. 



Perhaps the greatest element of care which man has had 

 to devote to the horse is found in the matter of shoeing. In 

 the state of nature the admirably constructed hoof sufficiently 

 provided the animal against the excessive wearing of its 

 horny extremity. Nature, however, rarely provides for more 

 strength and endurance than the creature in its wild state 

 demands ; and so it comes about that when horses have to 

 bear burdens or draw carriages, particularly on roadways, 

 their unprotected feet will not withstand the strain which is 

 put upon them, the. rate of growth of the structure com- 

 posing the hoof not being sufficiently rapid to make good 

 the wearing which these unnatural conditions impose. For 

 thousands of years, in the roadless stages of man's develop- 

 ment, the difficulties arising from the wearing of the hoof 

 were not serious, for the creatures trod either on turf-covered 



