418 HORSE PORTRAITURE. 



mash made for the feed at ten o'clock for each of them. 

 Unless they are costive, this mash can be made of the 

 hominy and oats, and a small proportion of bran. The 

 water must be boiling, and the vessel that is used to make 

 it in must be covered, so that there will be no escape of 

 steam. 



PUPIL. In preparing these horses for the trial, I did not 

 give them more than three-quarters of their usual feed of 

 grain, last night half their water, and about a quarter of 

 the hay they commonly receive. This morning I have only 

 given them a quart of grain apiece, and a very few swallows 

 of water. 



PBECEPTOE. I think the amount you have named may 

 not do any injury, though I would not have fed them as 

 much. I am not in favor of " drawing a horse " as closely 

 as many do, who, I think, err in making their restrictions 

 too severe. There is a point to be reached in this pre- 

 paration which it should be our aim to observe, viz : that 

 the stomach should not be encumbered, and yet the 

 nourishment afforded by the food be sufficient to carry a 

 horse through a race, in which he would " weaken" unless 

 the supply was adequate to meet the demands. Many 

 interesting experiments have been made in France to 

 determine the time it takes for a horse to digest his food, 

 and also the effects of exertion in hastening the process. 

 I do not remember them distinctly enough to quote what 

 the results were; but this I do recollect, that digestion is 

 nearly passive when the animal is in repose, is much 

 hastened with moderate exercise, and suspended when 

 violent exertion takes place. In three or four hours, under 

 the most favorable circumstances, the food is assim- 

 ilated. Now, last night's feed would only have undergone 

 a partial change before the action of the stomach was 

 suspended by the animal sleeping, and whatever was given 

 this morning, cannot help encumbering the stomach, at 



