CONDITION AND CONDITIONING 



in the stomach to insure perfect digestion. The 

 popular demand is all for a coarse and clear Tim- 

 othy hay, woody in fibre, and not freely digest- 

 ible ; but why this should be the case, at least for 

 general purposes, will ever remain a mystery. Of 

 course, horses in fast work and highly grain-fed 

 get but little hay (although the more advanced 

 trainers have modified this) ; but the average 

 beast may have all he wants, and the finer grasses 

 (and clovers) early cut and nicely cured are 

 cheap, wholesome, preferable, and rarely used. 

 One hears much of the celebrated " blue grass " 

 of Kentucky, but finds it simply the "June 

 grass" of all northern localities; while the stock- 

 barns of that State, thoroughbred and trotting estab- 

 lishments alike, are filled solid to the roofs with 

 clover hay, and that is what grows and nourishes 

 every celebrated race-horse that upholds the fame 

 of the " blue-grass region.'* Such fodder may be 

 a little dusty, but it is easily sprinkled, and no 

 horse keeper need fear to outrage tradition and 

 feed the finer grades of this material with great 

 economy and much satisfaction. Oats, as the 

 staff of equine life, should form the basis of the 

 general ration. But corn-on-the-ear, no other 

 way, is a most satisfactory adjunct for eight 



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