78 THE HORSE BOOK. 



each day at the same hours, either two or three 

 times. 



In feeding horses it is well to remember that 

 it is an easy matter to keep them fat and hearty 

 if they are at first gradually accustomed to the 

 food they are to receive and then are given 

 plenty of it. It is the sudden and great change 

 that hurts. As has been said before, there is no 

 wonderful secret formula about the feeding of 

 horses. The fattest horse I know is 27 years 

 of age and subsists chiefly on stale bread and 

 damaged bananas. Another very fat old horse 

 I am acquainted with lives on edible refuse 

 culled on a garbage route — cabbage leaves, ba- 

 nana skins, crusts and the like — with a ration 

 of tough slough hay that by good rights should 

 be used for packing iron castings. Thousands 

 of horses live, work hard and keep fat or fairly 

 so in the cities on alimentation that is merely 

 trash. All of this I mention as showing that 

 there is no wonderful occult science in feeding 

 horses. It is largely a matter of hard common 

 sense. 



It should never be forgotten for an instant 

 that there is a vast difference between the 

 proper feeding of horses that are working and 

 those that are idle. Brood mares doing nothing 

 would not thrive on trash. They should have 

 the best of everything and always the cleanest 

 of food. Hence on the farm where the best is 

 available, give it to them and give them enough. 



