42 THE HORSE 



heaping teaspoonful of saltpetre to his Saturday night 

 mash. 



In some good work-horse stables a small quantity of 

 dry bran is mixed with every feed of oats. This tends 

 to make the horses eat more slowly and chew their oats 

 better. It also helps digestion. 



If you want to keep a horse looking round and well 

 filled up across the loins, and if at the same time, the 

 horse is doing little work, bran is very useful and is 

 best given dry or mixed with a little water. If a horse 

 is fed only a small quantity of oats and plenty of hay, 

 he tends to sag down in the belly and lose flesh over the 

 back ribs so that his appearance will be injured, but by 

 feeding him plenty of bran with a small quantity of 

 oats and the usual quantity of hay he will still retain 

 the rounded, well-filled-up shape which is produced by 

 liberal feeding of grain. 



After a long day's work in hot weather, nothing is so 

 refreshing to a horse as a bran mash, given luke-warm, 

 although, of course, if a horse is to be used hard on the 

 following day the bran mash should not be given on 

 account of its laxative effect. So in cold weather, or 

 after a long day in a cold rain storm, a hot bran mash 

 made, say, half of oats and half of bran with the addi- 

 tion of a tablespoonful of ginger or of brown sugar, or 

 both, will be relished Immensely by the horse and will 

 be good for him. If he has been chilled, or greatly 

 fatigued, an ounce of gin may be added to the bran 

 mash. 



Bran can also be fed to advantage dry and mixed 

 with oats or corn. In fact, the proper winter feed for 



