32 FEEDING AND WATERING. 



oats are a much better feed. However plentiful corn may 

 be, it should be fed sparingly. Lay on as much muscle as 

 you please, the more the better, but a horse overburdened 

 with fat is unable to stand as much hard work as one whose 

 muscles are better developed. 



Great care and regularity should be given to watering and 

 feeding. The water should in summer be clean, fresh and 

 cool, and in the winter should be free from ice. Every 

 horse should have cut hay, straw, corn-fodder, or wheat 

 chaff, wetted and mixed with bran, at least once a day the 

 year round. In the hot weather a horse should not be fed 

 much corn. Bran and oats are much better. The more 

 work the more feed, of course. 



The practice of feeding the horse when tired and thirsty 

 is altogether too common, and then too with the extra thirst 

 of a full meal allow it to gorge itself with water. When 

 this is done the horse should remain quiet for a full hour 

 before starting on the road or at hard work to get space for 

 its lungs to play and its heart to beat, by the digestion of the 

 food and its removal to the bowels. 



Did you ever get in your mouth or on your plate some 

 potato that had soured in the hot weather? If so, you know 

 so ething of the misery a horse must suffer when compelled 

 to take all his food from a sour manger. Cut food, moist- 

 ened, is very likely to sour the manger. The good horseman 

 will always bend over it when tying his charges. Sourness 

 is easily detected and easily cured by a pail of scalding 

 water. A pinch of charcoal dust thrown in the manger 

 daily will help keep things sweet and prevent acidity in the 

 horse's stomach. 



If the horse eats lots of grain and does not do well, it 

 must have sore teeth or a poor digestion. It is an easy thing 

 to have the teeth smoothed so it can eat well. If the trouble 



