CHAPTER YIII. 



FEEDING. 



hiportance of Good Feeding — The Coat an Indicator of How 

 Horses have been Fed — Exceptions to the General Rule — 

 Keeping the Stomach from getting Empty — The Quality of 

 Food — Preparing Food — A WeeFs Keep for a Hard- 

 ivorking Horse — Varied Diet the Best — Feeding Hunters — 

 Bran-masher and Carrot-mashes — Water — Warm Drinks — 

 Maize — Care needed in the Feeding and Treatment of 

 Broken -winded Horses — Advantages and Disadvantages of 

 Moss Litter — Treatment for Horses Overfeeding themselves. 



|p|3|[HERE can, obviously, be few more imp 

 W|§; Id the matter of "horse management 

 ^tA?^ feeding. " It's better to pay a bu 



important questions 

 it than that of 

 ig. " It's better to pay a butcher's than a 

 doctor's bill," exclaims the father of a healthy family; and 

 no less reasonable is it for the owner of horses to prefer paying 

 the corn-chandler than the veterinary surgeon. A horse fed 

 by the average costermonger for a couple of months, and 

 then put into a good stable, and on fall rations of old oats, 

 for the following two months, would be hardly recognisable 

 at the end of the latter period. 



As may readily be imagined, the coat is the first indication 

 of the kind of feeding an animal is treated to, and no 

 contrast can be more marked than that we see between 

 the harsh, wiry, staring hair of the ill-cared for and poorly- 

 fed horse, and the sleek, glossy coat of his more fortunate 

 brother. Every rule has its exception, and although, nine 

 times out of ten, a bad coat means bad feeding, I recollect 

 once owning a young mare, quite thoroughbred, whose coat 

 was a positive disgrace, in spite of every food invented by 



