FEEDING AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 61 



ment, as well as to compensate for the waste of tissue caused 

 by work ; while more food is needed in cold weather, when 

 the body is exposed to rapid abstraction of heat or vicissitudes 

 of temperature, than in a warm, genial season. 



A horse in poor condition will also demand a larger supply 

 of food in order to perform a given amount of labour than one 

 which is already in good training. 



But there is a limit to the amount of food that can be 

 profitably utilised in the body, and though the amount will 

 correspond to the exertion that may be exacted, yet there is 

 a limit also to this. 



One horse will do more work than another ; but when the 

 work is excessive in either, the wear and tear cannot be fully 

 compensated for by even the most nutritious food in excess. 

 When food is allowed in quantity and quality beyond the 

 requirements of health and labour, then it is not only wasted, 

 but predisposes to inefficiency and disease. 



The secret of feeding is, then, to feed on such food in such 

 a manner, and in such quantity, as will maintain the horse in 

 the most perfect health possible, having regard to the service 

 required of it. A certain amount of nutriment must be given 

 to keep the machine going satisfactorily under ordinary con- 

 ditions ; when the strain is greater, then the amount should be 

 increased, else we shall have waste without replenishment, and 

 premature wearing out. 



Food should consist of the two principal constituents which 

 are required to sustain the body ; one of these is the albumi- 

 nous or nitrogenous, needed for building up the muscular and 

 other tissues and repairing the waste of these; the other is the 

 starchy or fatty matter, which is chiefly burned up in the body 

 to maintain the animal heat. A combination of these two 

 principles is necessary in all foods, but their relative propor- 

 tions vary considerably in different kinds of food, and even in 

 different specimens of the same kind ; in some the flesh- 



