48 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



horses have hay that has been overheated in 

 the stack. Oat hay has been given and I see no 

 reason why oat straw cut rather rear and properly 

 won should not be a good food for horses but I 

 have had no experience with it except giving it 

 to young horses when good hay was very scarce. 

 They did well enough on it. But I knew a Dales 

 farmer whose cart horses were always in the 

 pink of condition, who, when asked what he fed 

 them on, replied, " Badly threshed oat straw." 

 He fed his horses on oat sheaf. Needless to say 

 a very extravagant and wasteful method. 



Many very good horse masters use most of their 

 hay in the form of chop, and sometimes they mix 

 a little wheat straw in with the hay. I used to 

 give chop to the cart horses, but I never took 

 kindly to giving it to Hunters or harness horses. 

 I believe it is a very economical way of feeding 

 and if horses are given to bolting their corn it is 

 a good plan to mix it with chop. But chop should 

 never lie about for days; it should always be 

 fresh. Sometimes it is desirable that oats should 

 be crushed but here again they should be crushed 

 as they are wanted. And when they are crushed 

 they should only have the skin broken. 



Bran mashes should be given twice a week. 

 They are made by well mixing a feed of oats 

 with dry bran in a bucket. This should be 

 scalded with linseed gruel which has been kept 

 on the simmer for a couple of hours and the 

 bucket should be closely covered so that the heat 

 may be kept in. 



