FEEDING. 



205 



up." Late in the day and in the last feed at night is the 

 best time to feed beans. 



Peas are quite as nutritious as beans^ and not being so 

 constipating may be used with greater freedom. Both 

 beans and peas may be considered the roast beef, Burton 

 Stingo, and crusty old Port, or full-bodied Burgundy, of the 

 stable menu. 



Barley is too seldom seen inside our home stables. 

 The Arabs have a saying, '' Had we not seen that horses 

 come from horses, we should have said that it is barley that 

 produces them." All the great feats of endurance of the 

 untiring steed of the desert are performed on barley and 

 chopped straw. My Eastern experience has taught me to 

 value this corn. I have known horses thrive on barley that 

 went " all-to-pieces " on oats, probably owing to the former 

 being so easy of digestion. Given dry, in moderation, mixed 

 with oats, it suits many horses. In tropical climates, where 

 horses sweat profusely, and so carry off, through the pores 

 of the skin, its heating qualities, barley may, in some 

 instances, be the sole corn diet; but in our temperate clime 

 it does not answer unless given as an admixture. I have 

 given it, bruised, to horses with weak digestion, and to those 

 of nervous temperament, with most satisfactory results. 

 Scalded, it suits and fattens washy nervous horses, and 

 soaked in water and left to sprout it acts as an elixir on 

 those that have become stale and worn from excessive work. 

 The oldest race-horse I ever had to deal with was an 

 Arabian, well known on the Bombay side of India as 

 "Cronsdat." His last race, one crowned by victory, was 

 the Welter, a mile and half over the Byculla course. I fed 

 this game old campaigner on a mixture of a pulse known as 

 gram J scalded barley, a sprinkling of oats, some ground nut^ 

 and, as a salad, a handful or two of lucerne with a few 



