CHAPTER XV. 



FODDER, WATER AND BEDDING. 



THE QUALITY, QUANTITY AND COST OF HAY, GRAIN, 



BEDDING, ETC. 



The fodder which the mature horse 

 receives in the course of a day should fulfil 

 two requirments: first, to provide, by assimi- 

 lation, such materials as are necessary to 

 replace those which have been expended in 

 all forms of muscular and nervous exertion; 

 second, to furnish, by combustion, warmth to 

 the body. If the animal is young and not 

 fully developed there is a third function, 

 namely, that of providing nutriment for the 

 creation of the material needed in formingr 

 new structures. 

 In viewinor the horse's fodder in the lio-ht of these con- 

 siderations it will be readily seen that the food should not 

 be of the same unvarying character to which it is usually 

 confined. Many servants, with the best intentions but igno- 

 rant of the results of their acts, feed their horses a uniform 

 quantity of oats, hay and water, day in and day out, with a 

 bran mash once a week, irrespective of the age of the horse, 

 the amount of work he is performing, or the season of the 

 year. If the quantity of provender used is small, the aver- 

 age owner concludes his servant is honest and economical, 

 and gives the matter no further consideration. However, it 



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