No. 4.] DISEASE IN HOKSES. 259 



animals. The feeding of a horse for slow farm work must 

 necessarily differ from that of the one used wholly upon the 

 road or track for fast work. In the former a large, Avell- 

 filled abdomen does not interfere with its performing the 

 work required of it, consequently there is little objection to 

 giving a horse used for slow work liberal quantities of bulky 

 food. The same food given a race horse would produce such 

 a distension of the stomach and intestines that free and easy 

 action of the respiratory organs would be prevented, and in 

 consequence the horse rendered useless for fast work. Race 

 horses require a more concentrated and easily digested food 

 than it is necessary or economical to supply our slow-work- 

 ing animals. 



Individual animals possessing certain constitutional pecul- 

 iarities are frequently very susceptible in respect to the action 

 of different kinds of feeds or different methods of feeding and 

 watering. Such animals are usually nervous and excitable, 

 are long-legged, narrow-chested, straight-ribbed and small- 

 barrelled. They are oftentimes designated " bad thriveis," 

 on account of the difficulty in feeding them so as to keep 

 them in good condition. Such individuals are liable to 

 attacks of indigestion, diarrhoea, colic, etc., upon the slightest 

 change of feed, or irregularity in feeding or watering. 



Bearing in mind some of the general principles which 

 have been briefly referred to, we may consider in detail some 

 of the methods of feeding and watering, commonly practised, 

 which are most productive of disease. 



First we notice the efl'ect of an excess of food. In this 

 we must consider the horse as a machine, which has a certain 

 limited capacity for converting so much raw material into a 

 finished product. We supply the horse with hay and grain, 

 and expect in return for our outlay a definite amount of 

 energy. Within certain limits the quantity of the product 

 does not depend so much upon what we supply as upon the 

 capacity of the organism to convert what is given from one 

 form into another. A horse can take in, digest, assimilate 

 and appropriate only a limited amount of material. If 

 more than this definite quantity be taken, the organism 

 must of necessity become taxed beyond its powers ; e. g.^ 



