THE CARE OF HORSES. 297 



work of the bay mare on exactly half the food. This 

 bay mare has another peculiarity, she bolts her oats 

 without stopping to chew them. To correct this, an 

 old bridle is always kept hanging at the door of the 

 stall, and when her oats are given to her the bit is 

 slipped in her mouth. It would be well also, in the 

 case of such horses, when kept in loose boxes, to 

 have a manger made in the shape of a long narrow 

 trough, running the length of the stall. If the oats 

 were scattered over this manger, an additional hin- 

 drance to bolting them would be provided. A " slow 

 feeding " manger has been patented, and is now on 

 the market, which accomplishes the same object by 

 doling out the oats through a small aperture. 



Ground oats can sometimes be fed with advantage, 

 but a horse that bolts his grain is apt to be a " soft " 

 horse, and to feed him on ground oats would aggravate 

 this tendency. Not long since, I happened to take 

 up a disquisition on pigs, and my eye fell upon this 

 passage : " A hog ought to eat his food up clean, but 

 he ought not to make a mad rush for the trough ; 

 that shows an inferior constitution." I believe that 

 this remark is equally true of horses. 



After what I have said of the two animals just 

 mentioned, the reader will hardly need to be told 

 that the bay mare seldom if ever requires a bran 

 mash ; whereas the black mare has one twice a week 

 through the winter, when grass is not obtainable. 

 The office of a bran mash is to loosen the bowels, cool 

 the blood, and purify the system. At the close of a 

 long, hot day's work, give a horse a good cleaning, a 

 bran mash, and a soft bed,, and it is wonderful how 

 fresh he will come out in the morning. And here — at 



