Book VII. FEEDING OF HORSES. 1005 



66ofi. Hay should never be given m liirge quantities at a time ; horses breathe on it, become disgusted, 

 and then waste it. They also, when it is gOod, eat too much, and distend their stomachs, and then be- 

 come crib-biters. Hay should not be kept in the stable in great quantities, otherwise it becomes impreg- 

 nated with the volatile alkali of the stable, and is then spoiled. As substitutes for hav, the straw of 

 wheat, barley, oats, and rye are used ; but these are much less nutritive, and rather serve to excite masti- 

 cation by mixing them with other matters, than to be depended on for animalisation. On hay, when 

 good, many horses subsist ; and when no exertions are required of them they are sufficiently nourished 

 by it. 



6687. The groin used as horse food is of various kinds, possessing, it is sujiposed, different degrees of 

 nutriment, according to their different proportions of gluten, sugar, or fjirinaceous matter. In Soutli 

 Britain, oats are almost exclusively used as horse grain ; and which, according to the experiments of 

 Sir Humphry Davy, as we have seen ( 5000.), contain 748 i>arts of nutritious matter out of IIW). In 

 wheat, 9.rj parts of 1000 are nutritious; but wheat is seldom given with us except to racers and hunters, 

 or on extraordinary occasions when great excitement is required, when it is sometimes given in the form 

 of bread. Barley is more frequently given than wheat, and contains 920 parts in 10(iO of nutritious par- 

 ticles. Made into malt, where its sugar is evolved, it becomes still more highly nutritious. Barley appears 

 to have been the principal horse food of the ancients. 



6688. The pulse used as horse food, are the seeds of beans, peas, vetches, &c. Beans are seldom given 

 alone on account of their heating and astringent qualities, but are mixed with straw or hay, cut into chaff, 

 either whole or broken. 



6689. The roots used as horse food, are such as contain much sugar, but in which the gluten is in small 

 proportion only. Carrots stand deservedly high on this list. They are favourable to condition, as the 

 skin and hair always look well under their use. They are highly nutritious we know, from the fattening 

 that occurs from them. They also generate good flesh, as we know horses can work on them, and have 

 their wind increased by their use ; indeed, so favourable are they to the proper action of the lungs, that 

 a course of carrots will frequently remove the most obt-tinate coughs. The parsiiep has similar pro- 

 perties. Swedish turnips, as having the saccharine particles in abundance, are also found good. Bect^f 

 root likewise. 



66S0. Mixtures, or mixed food, is formed of several kinds among agriculturists; and it possesses many 

 advantages, as it can be varied to every taste, and made either cooling as an alterative, or nutritious and 

 stimuiating as a tonic. Although it is principally used for waggon, post, and farm horses, it would be 

 boater were its use more universal. Of th.s manger feeding, one of the best is formed from a chaff made 

 of one pait best meadow or clover hay, and two parts wheaten straw; to three bushels of this mixture 

 add one of bruised oats. The importance of bruising or flattening the oats is very great. "When used 

 whole, the grains are apt to slip between the teeth or the chaflf" in mastication. In fact, corn when either 

 given alone, or with chaff, would, in most instances, benefit by bruising. To horses under great exertion, 

 the stomach must be, to a certain degree, weakened also ; in such cases, by bruising their corn, not only 

 the work of mastication is much of it spared, but that of the stomach also. In old horses with worn teeth, 

 bruised oats are of great consequence. Fast-eating horses do not properly masticate more than one half 

 of their corn ; much of it remains in the dung so perfectly unaltered, that it will afterwards vegetate ; 

 and an experienced agriculturist states, that during his residence in India, in a season of scarcity, half- 

 famished wretches actually followed the cavalry, and drew their principal subsistence fiom the unchewed 

 grains of corn extracted from the excrement of the horses. Of this manger food, three, four, five, or six 

 pecks may be given daily, according to size and exertions required; and as but little hay is required, so 

 hard-worked horses are enabled to lie down much more, instead of standing" on their already fatigued 

 limbs to eat hay. 



6691. Cooked food is also now much used by practical agriculturists for horses. The articles made use 

 of are potatoes, carrots, turnips, or parsneps. To horses with their digestion weakened by hard work, old 

 age, or other causes, food in sufticient quantities, thus already reduced to a pultaceous mass, resembling 

 chyme, without the loss of time, or the waste of saliva, may be very important : for, as Curwen very judi- 

 ciously observes, a horse will consume nearly six hours in eating a stone of hay, whereas he will eat a 

 stone of steamed potatoes in twenty minutes. Horses are observed of themselves to lie down after eating 

 cooked food sooner than other times. 



6692. The quantity of food to be given to a horse must be regulated by circumstances, the principle of 

 which is the exertions or nature of the work required of him. If this be simply laborious, as drawing 

 of loads, or carrying of weights, all that is requisite is that the food be sufficiently nutritious. The bulk 

 from whence such nutriment is gained is not a matter of import : but if such exertions are to be com- 

 bined with celerity, as in our racers, hunters, &c., it is evident that such feeding is best adapted to the 

 end required which combines nutriment without bulk ; anti which increases the durability by increasing 

 the mental irritability, and thus giving tone and courage. These are found to be better derived from a 

 proportionate allowance of grain or corn, than any other mode of feeding at present known. It remains 

 only to add, that although experience has fully proved this, in all cases where the exertions are extreme, 

 yet it has also led to another evil, by introducing a plan of treating all horses of value alike. Thus, most 

 of the more valuable hackneys, the carriage horses of the wealthy, &c., are accustomed to be fed, not as 

 though their exertions were moderate, but as though they were unceasing, to the destruction of a vast 

 quantity of valuable corn. From thousands of such horses, at least one third of their hay and corn might 

 be advantageously abstracted. 



6693. Too great a quantity of food injures not only the community but the horse also. Thesfomach 

 becomes distended by over-feeding, and it then becomes weak and incapable of a healthy digestion ; crib- 

 biting, hide-bound, and pursiveness follow ; or when the stomach does digest this undue quantity, it 

 generate fulness, which shows itself in inflammations or foulness, appearing in the form of cracks and 

 grease. 



6694. A horse in full work, of whatever kind, will require, according to his size, a peck of sound oats in 

 twenty-four hours; and when the work is unremitting, as in post, stage-waggon, or other very large and 

 hard-working horses, even more may be required. Some post horses have an unlimited quantity given 

 them ; but this practice is always erroneous. If they eat more, it serves only to distend the stomach 

 unduly, and also to require stronger digestive powers : if they blow on it they leave it, and it is wasted, 

 or a more greedy one swallows it up without mastication ; and both stomach, horse, and master are 

 thereby robbed. It is of consequence that the oats, as an important part of horse food, should be perfectly 

 sweet, free from must, and not kiln-dried. The skin should be thin, but the grain plump and heavy, yield, 

 ing from thirty-eight to forty pounds the bushel. To encourage a slow and thorough mastication, sprinkle 

 them with water and spread them well over the manger. Tlie quantity of hay required fbrsiiddle horses 

 which are corn-fed is from six to eight pounds in twenty-four hours : if the quantity of c6rn be small, and^' 

 the horse large, ten or twelve pounds is not too much, 'i'his quantity is also sufticient for carriage or coach - 

 horses, as they usually have either corn or mixed food in sufticient plenty also. For waggon and the- 

 larger agricultural horses, from fifteen to twenty pounds may be requisite: When it can he con.-', 

 veniently done, the quantity of both hay and corn should be divided into ibur portions T1m3 largest por> ; 

 tion both of hay and corn should be given at night ; the next in quantity in the morning ; the other two* 

 portions at noon, and about four in the afternoon. This, however, must depend on the work of the horse, 

 and other circumstances. 



6695. Watering of horses is an important part of their management, and many errors are committed 

 relative to it. It is equally erroneous to debar them from it, as it is to allow them too much ; and the 

 former is much the most common evil. In summer, or when from great perspiration the animal juices 



