204 HORSEMAXSHIP. 



well as the white varieties. Irish oats being generally kiln- 

 dried are, therefore, not so much in favour, otherwise those 

 grown on the extensive lime-stone central plain of the 

 island are excellent. 



New oats produce flatulency. Horses fed on them do 

 not stay well. Oats for fast, hard work should be two 

 years old ; after that age they begin to shrink. 



Beans ^ of which grooms are far too fond, must be given 

 with great caution, and seldom or never to young horses, 

 unless called upon for duty on the racecourse, for steeple- 

 chasing, or for the hunting-field. Horses doing ordinary 

 hack work, unless very old, do not require them, and great 

 care must be exercised in feeding them to any horse un- 

 accustomed to this powerful tissue-forming and heat-pro- 

 ducing food ; otherwise cracked heels, affections of the 

 eyes, acute diseases of the foot, skin diseases, and general 

 predisposition to inflammatory attacks of various sorts may 

 be caused. New beans are absolute poison. Those im- 

 ported from Egypt should never be used, being full of the 

 eggs of various insects, which when hatched out in the 

 horse's stomach produce irritation, loss of health, condition, 

 and general unthriftiness. The Lincolnshire tic is the best 

 variety, being small, thin in the husk, and heavy in the 

 kernel. Whatever variety be used see that it be old, dry, 

 and free from perforations by grubs. They should be split 

 or bruised, not ground, and if given immediately before a 

 horse starts on quick work are pretty certain to produce 

 coUc. 



Horses on long journeys require the stimulus of beans ; 

 those that have been accustomed to them cannot work 

 without them ; they are decidedly beneficial in the case of 

 delicate constitutioned animals that pass off their food 

 rapidly, and to old horses wanting, as most do, a '■' pick-me- 



