58 NOTES FOR HUNTING-MEN 



Years ago, a stud groom, writing to the * Field,' 

 said : 



' My experience, which extends over thirty years 

 in the hunting stable, has proved to me that the 

 amount of forage consumed per horse in a stable, 

 where the gentleman hunts with hounds and not 

 after them, would be about : 14 lbs. oats, and 2 lbs. 

 beans, per day. With this amount few horses would 

 eat more than one truss of hay (56 lbs.) per week ; 

 this, with two trusses straw (72 lbs.), 7 lbs. bran, 

 and one pint linseed, should suffice.' 



This calculation agrees with my own, except in 

 the matter of hay. One truss per week means 8 lbs. 

 per day, which I think is rather too little for a full- 

 sized hunter. 



When a horse is in hard work I always allow 

 his appetite to be the measure of his corn ; but I 

 have never had a horse who would go on eating 

 more than the amount stated above for any length of 

 time. Beans or peas (personally, I prefer the latter) 

 are an important article of diet in a hunting stable, 

 and some horses never do really well without them ; 

 but they should be used with great caution, especially 

 with young horses. They are, as you know, heat- 

 ing, and apt to cause filled legs and skin eruptions 

 if given too freely. 



They should never be given unless a horse is 

 doing hard work, and even then two or three 



