81 



FOOD REQUIRED, AMOUNT OF. 



In this particular horses vary, some requiring more than others. 

 For ordinary carriage horses give from two to three quarterns of oats 

 (a quartern being a quarter of a peck) every day, or from a bushel 

 and a half to two bushels a week. If the work be very hard increase 

 the quantity. As to hay, it is usual to give two-thirds of the hay at 

 night and one-third in the morning, after the horse is exercised and 

 dressed (251bs. to 301bs. being a fair amount). Some say that 

 horses should have water always before them excepting when they 

 come in hot from a journey. If only at intervals it should be 

 given four times a day. Kiln-dried oats are liable to produce 

 diabetes and thick wind. 



GENERAL FEEDING. 



Do not give a horse unchilled pump-water. The temperature 

 should be that of the stables. A hunter should have about lOlbs. 

 of hay per diem. A quarter of oats is eight bushels, each weighing 

 about, on the average, 4-Olbs. A quartern is a quarter of a peck. 

 Some people contract with a dealer to supply them regularly once a 

 month. The following would be fair allowance for a single horse : 

 Iqr. oats, 4 bushels chaff, ocwt. to 3^cwt. hay, and 8 trusses straw. 

 Some people give their horses a mixture of hay, straw, oats and 

 Indian corn in equal proportions. About 201bs. per diem of this 

 mixture ought to suffice. For a pony, unless worked very hard, 

 give Ibush. oats, and |cwt. hay per week. 



Oats, with a single handful of bran to each feed, and hay, is the 

 food on which horses do best ; though for hunters and other horses 

 in full work, a handful of beans, as well as bran, may be given with 

 each feed. 



Hunters are fed, in some well-managed establishments, five times a 

 day ; four feeds are enough. Early in the morning, a little before 

 noon, five in the afternoon, and at doing-up time in the evening — say 

 eight o'clock — are sufficiently frequent. The other period of feeding 

 commonly adopted is a second feed in the morning after the horses 

 go into the stable from exercise. 



On hunting days the horses going out should have their morning 

 feed divided, viz., by giving little more than half an ordinary por- 

 tion on first going to stable, and a small feed about an hour and 

 half before the horse leaves the stable. In the evening, after the 

 day's work is over, two light feeds may be given — one as soon after 

 returning to the stable as suffices to make the horse comfortably 

 clean and dry ; the second small feed two hours later at night. 



a 



