30 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



horses at any time and in any quantity, knowing or 

 caring little whether they injure the horse or not. The 

 old proverb says, " Full feed, then rest, often feed does 

 best," and in this case it is strictly true. It would seem 

 that nature had wisely foreseen that the horse was destined 

 to become the servant of man, and to render it more 

 valuable and fitted to the labour that would be required 

 of it, it became necessary to diminish the inconvenience 

 and danger which would necessarily accompany a large 

 stomach, and so ordained that the animal should have 

 one proportioned to the position it was destined to fill in 

 creation. The great bulk of its frame requires a large 

 amount of food to be consumed to afford nutriment, yet 

 the stomach is wisely formed small to prevent pressure 

 as much as possible, and in addition it has the power to 

 rapidly decompose the food, which speedily descends to 

 a portion ot the intestines remote from the diaphragm, 

 where the pressure of food cannot inconvenience it. 

 Indeed, the whole of its food is very quickly digested, 

 and very soon passed through, otherwise it could not be 

 sustained in strength. Considering the small amount 

 ot nutriment contained in the common food of the horse, 

 hence the force oi the proverb, and the stupidity of those 

 orooms who neglect to feed the horse often and at regular 

 intervals. In this we also see the wise and far-seeing 

 handiwork oi the Creator, for the horse, unlike the ox, 

 has no gaui-bladder, to let at intervals a quantity of bile 

 into the stomach to aid its digestion, but the bile is 

 carried through the liver direct to the duodenum or first 

 o-ut, so that it is always supplied with the necessary bile 

 to promote a rapid digestion. No horse ought to be fed 



