176 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



four times its weight of saliva, so making a total of one 

 hundred pounds, the stomach will be filled to five or six times 

 of the physiological condition of two-thirds of its capacity. 

 For really hard work the ration would have to be doubled ; 

 but if it be increased to thirty pounds only, the period of 

 mastication will be prolonged to at least six hours daily, and 

 the mass of material swallowed will amount to one hundred 

 and fifty pounds, which will fill the stomach eight times in 

 succession. This state of things is manifestly incompatible 

 with hard or prolonged work, to say nothing of the over- 

 distended belly, the impaired wind, and the soft flabby 

 muscles, which unfit the horse for anything faster than a 

 walking pace, or severe exertion even at that. One of the 

 chief causes of one form of broken wind, which consists of 

 rupture of the air cells of the lungs, is working horses 

 severely while their stomach and bowels are distended with 

 bulky food. 



" For these reasons, then, horses which are required to work 

 for long periods, or to get through a large amount of exertion 

 in a comparatively short time, should have their food presented 

 to them in the best form possible with regard to mastication, 

 digestion, and assimilation, so that time and fatigue may be 

 saved and the animals maintained in a fit state. The harder 

 the work the more the bulk of the food should be diminished 

 and its nutritiousness increased ; and to ensure this the hay 

 should be reduced in quantity and the oats increased in pro- 

 portion to the demands made on the physical energies ; always 

 remembering, however, that a certain amount of bulk is a 

 physiological necessity, and the horse cannot live upon oats 

 alone. Chopped hay and crushed oats dispense with an 

 immense amount of mastication, while thorough assimilation 

 is secured, waste averted, and strength and time are saved. 



" The quantity and kind of food required by horses will 

 depend, of course, upon the work demanded from them ; 

 insufficiency or inferior quality will not maintain vigour, while 

 more than is necessary tends to plethora a condition which 



