100 AMERICAN STABLE GUIDE. 



the dust and the liability to give rise to heaves and broken 

 wind in the horse so fed. To this we say, from ample 

 experience, we do not deny but that horses fed upon 

 clover hay in the manner that hay is given, will occasionally 

 have thickening of the wind ; but it must be remembered 

 that many horses fed upon timothy become similarly dis- 

 eased. This being the case, it cannot be wholly ascribed 

 to the quality or kind of hay that is used. We may easily 

 account for this being more frequent in the horse fed with 

 clover hay than one fed with timothy, when we consider the 

 quantity of clover horses will consume in comparison with 

 that of any other variety of hay fed to animals of all work. 

 It is the quantity and not the quality that gives rise to this 

 complaint against clover hay. Are all the cases of thick 

 and broken wind encountered in the city, caused by a hay 

 that they never saw or fed upon ? The abuse of a feed 

 cannot stand as an argument against its usefulness, for if 

 this be the case, is there anything perfectly harmless when 

 overdone or misapplied ? We will not enter at length into 

 the inquiry as to the cause of broken wind, our object 

 being merely to show that anything, either food or water, 

 given in bulk at a time when the ride or the drive 

 may shortly after be exacted from a full-bellied horse, 

 will prove injurious. The question may be satisfactorily 

 settled by a glance at the ravenous-feeding and pot-bellied 

 horse as the victim of heaves. Who ever saw a thin, fleet, 

 free, light, and spare-feeding horse affected with broken 

 wind, feed him as you will ? 



