CHAPTER lY. 



FEEDING. 



Eeeding is the most important part of stable 

 management, yet how few use any discretion in 

 this matter, but feed 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 I^ature 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 afibrd nutriment, yet the stomach is 

 wisely formed to prevent pressure as much as 

 possible, and in addition it has the power to 

 rapidly decompose the food, which speedily de- 

 scends to a portion of 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 



