58 HOESE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



pages of this chapter. Dr. Parkes' proposition, that 

 " if men are undergoing great exertion, they take more 

 food, and if they can obtain it, the increase is especially 

 in the classes of albuminates and fats," holds equally 

 well with regard to horses. 



Hay and Grass. We may consider these two to 

 be, nearly, the same kind of food, except that the 

 former contains a less proportion of water than the 

 latter. 



I have previously argued that a horse should get a 

 fall supply of hay under all circumstances, except when 

 he is unable to take sufficient exercise. 



A horse, omitting exceptional cases, evinces a marked 

 preference for corn compared to hay ; hence we may 

 assume that, when he turns from the former to the 

 latter, he does so from the prompting of an instinct 

 which is intended by nature to guide him in the selec- 

 tion of the food most suitable for the requirements of 

 his system. We need hardly dwell on the not un- 

 common folly of stinting a horse of his hay, when the 

 object is to get him to eat as much corn as possible, in 

 order to enable him to sustain violent and continued 

 exertion, such as that demanded during the training of 

 race-horses. I have always found that such animals 

 eat more corn and digest it better when their supply of 

 hay is unlimited at all times, than when it is curtailed, 

 and especially so when they are deprived of it during 

 feeding hours. The idea that a groom, trainer, or 

 owner, can tell to a pound, how much hay his hard- 

 worked horse should eat, is palpably absurd. The 

 case of corn is very different ; for a horse, unless his 

 powers are fully taxed, is almost always prone to eat 



