CHAPTEE YII 



Feeding and Watering 



Feeding 

 As already remarked, hay and oats is the staple 

 food of the horse. Corn is not a natural food, 

 and it is questionable if too large a proportion in 

 the dietary is not absolutely injurious. As we 

 keep horses in a.n artificial manner and work 

 them, we must presumably feed them to a certain 

 extent artificially to enable them to perform their 

 duties. At the same time, it is constantly proved 

 that horses are capable of long and sustained 

 exertion on a dietary of nothing but grass. We 

 hear of men in the far West catching up a horse 

 and riding it for distances such as we should not 

 dream of traversing in the Eastern states, and the 

 animal is apparently in no way the worse. It is 

 doubtful, however, if a grass-fed animal would be 

 capable of doing regular hard work under these 

 conditions, although it is certain that it is capable 

 of violent exertion occasionally. Many horses, 

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