8 HORSE-KEEPING FOE AMATEURS. 



If this is given, less chaff should be used. Some animals 

 are most unsatisfactory in their condition ; they have out- 

 rageous appetites, and yet are always poor. Others, on the 

 contrary, look well and grow fat on half the amount of food 

 consumed by the former class. Most of the bad " doers," how- 

 ever, have poor constitutions, and rarely last long if in anything 

 like hard work. Change of food and stabling may be tried 

 with good effect in these cases. As to the latter, I have 

 known horses that will feed well when with others almost 

 refuse their food in solitude. Of late years maize has come 

 largely into use as an article of food, and for horses of slow 

 •draught it is unquestionably useful. I believe the London 

 General Omnibus Company have used it with signal success 

 for some considerable time, and with such a large number of 

 hardworking horses that alone should command attention. 

 -At first it has a decided tendency to purge, but afterwards 

 it puts on flesh. I doubt, however, if in that flesh there is 

 anything like the proportion of muscle that is to be got out 

 of a similar quantity of oats. Four times a day a horse 

 should be fed. Digestion is rapid if the animal is in health, 

 and he should always be ready for his meals. At the first 

 symptom, however, of satiety, stop the supplies, and take care 

 he has nothing until appetite returns naturally. Never let 

 a horse blow over his corn, or hay either; though as to the 

 latter, nine stablemen out of ten will leave so much in the rack 

 that a horse gets to hate the sight of it, or else eats so much 

 that he gets het.vy and unnaturally distended, and of course 

 quite unfitted for his work. In addition to the staple food 

 of a horse, carrots, and, in the spring, green meat, such as 

 tares, clover, vetches, &c., may be given with advantage. For 

 some unaccountable reason, horses are generally strictly limited 

 as to their supply of water. Now, I venture to think this 

 is a great mistake ; of course, I do not mean that, on coming 

 into his stable, after a long, dusty journey, he should be allowed 

 to drink ad Hh. ; but under ordinary circumstances it will do 

 no harm to let him have water always in his reach, and the 

 most convenient way of managing this is to have one of the 

 iron mangers with a fitted receptacle beside it for water. 

 The food of the horse is so dry that frequent recourse to 

 water is necessary, and always having it will free him from 

 the temptation to take too much at a time. If, however, 

 the old-fashioned plan of giving drink at intervals be carried 



