FOEAGE. 37 



68. Oats. 



Of grain for the horse long experience has proved oats to be the best. 

 Of the quantity to be given experience is also our best guide. The 

 regulation cavalry allowance of ten pounds per diem unquestionably is 

 sufficient for horses in ordinary work. This weight is about equivalent 

 to what is usually understood as three feeds. 



But where the work is severe, horses should be allowed as much oats as 

 they will eat. Hunters so fed will not consume on the average of the 

 winter more than from fourteen to fifteen pounds or possibly sixteen per 

 diem. The reader may be surprised at the small amount of the average ; 

 but it must be remembered that horses eat but little on the day or days 

 on which they are employed in hunting or other such long work. If an 

 unlimited quantity of oats were given for one day to a horse usually re- 

 stricted to a small allowance, he would of course eat a great deal more on 

 that day. The author lately selected a horse with a good appetite, whose 

 usual ration was ten pounds, and gave him as much as he liked. The 

 first day he ate twenty-two pounds, the second day the same ; but on the 

 third day he only consumed eighteen pounds, and for the three succeed- 

 ing days he averaged seventeen, but on the seventh he ate only sixteen. 



At the Newmarket training stables the average quantity consumed by 

 each horse is reckoned at from two and a quarter to two and a half 

 bushels per week ; or assuming the oats to weigh 44 Ib. per bushel, from 

 about fourteen to sixteen pounds per diem. On the other hand, it must 

 be remembered that the oats given by trainers are the very best, and 

 contain a greater amount of nutritive material than those generally sup- 

 plied by owners to their horses. 



Large carriage horses in ordinary gentlemen's work require 14 Ib. per 

 day. On this allowance they ought to be kept in the best possible condi- 

 tion. It is the amount allowed by one of the principal London firms, 

 when they contract to ration the horses which they let out on job. 



Cab horses in London generally eat about from 18 to 20 Ib. of oats a 

 day. It appears, at first sight, singular that they should eat more than 

 hunters or horses in training. The fact, for it is a fact, may probably be 

 accounted for partly by their being in the air some eight hours a day, 

 partly by the long, fatiguing nature of their work, which causes a great 

 consumption of animal material, and partly by the excellent habit of 

 cabmen of putting on the nose-bag whenever the horse happens to be 

 unemployed on the stand. The cabman is practically aware of the fact 

 that the more he can get his horse to eat the more work he will do. It 

 must also be borne in mind that the oats given by cabmen, though they 

 are sensible enough not to waste their money on a very inferior article, 

 are not the best. The quality of the oat must also be taken into con- 

 sideration in reckoning the quantity which a horse will eat, or which he 

 requires to keep him in good condition. 



