^o. 4.] THE HOUSE FOR NEW ENGLAiM). 137 



about the highest that can be attained. The horse I bought 

 was the handsomest type I ever saw for a steeple-chase horse, 

 thin and wiry. The same idea applies to horses as to big 

 men. Most big men are apt to be built on the soft type. 

 He was fed on eighteen quarts a day, and became impossible 

 to handle. I bought him, and thought I should have a 

 world-beater. He had catarrhal fever, and he all at once 

 wasted away and became of no value. With this tremen- 

 dous amount of food he was over-fed. If you can get a 

 horse fat on the ribs, with the fat laid pleasantly, when he 

 goes out in the spring he is rounder and more supple, and he 

 grows easier, and if he grows easier it is more natural. 



Question. What is the best kind of feed to give a 

 mature horse? 



Mr. Smith. Well, that is a pretty hard question to 

 answer, I believe, and I think you will agree with me. 

 There is not much doubt that if horses are to be worked 

 hard and regularly, oats are like beefsteak, and for a steady 

 diet are something to be depended on ; but if one eats oats 

 and beefsteak all the time, he wi^l get run down. 



I remember as a boy taking a trip from Oregon to the 

 lower part of California, to San Francisco. There was no 

 railroad, and we were obliged to go all the way on a stage 

 coach. About every eight miles they changed horses, and I 

 would stay up day and night ; I would have to stay to keep 

 the seat, that is the only way I could get it ; and I found 

 out, from the eight or nine miles, the total distance the horse 

 could go, that they fed a great deal as we did, — oats and 

 hay and mash. There is no doubt about mash being neces- 

 sary, as it is necessary for us to have an amount of vegeta- 

 bles, and if carrots are fed we have good results. You go 

 where horses are worth thousands of dollars apiece, and you 

 will be surprised at the kind of diet that is given them. At 

 Saratoga and Morris Park they bring carrots and everything 

 you can think of. They bring fresh clover, and many 

 breeders send back to California and have hay brought out. 

 Enoch Wishard goes to infinite pains. He has the whole 

 thing reduced to a S3^stem. He watches the horses care- 

 fulh', and has them all guarded by mos(j[uito netting, and' 



