1 86 FEEDING. 



spective functions of nutrition and excretion readily accom- 

 modate themselves to routine, the influence of which on the 

 mind is made manifest by the formation of a habit We 

 know from our personal experience that expectation of food 

 stimulates appetite, and that disappointment at not obtaining 

 it at a particular time has the opposite effect. In both these 

 cases, the influence of the mental impression in all probability 

 is not confined to the appetite, but also extends to digestion. 

 We also find that regularity in going to stool is a valuable 

 preventive to constipation ; and that " soliciting nature " has 

 often a good effect when we are suffering from that form of 

 indisposition. The tendency which the excitement of hear- 

 ing the music of the hounds or seeing a racecourse has to 

 make, respectively, a hunter or a racehorse dung more or less 

 loosely, is a good instance of the strong influence which the 

 equine mind has on the equine body. 



ADVISABILITY OF NOT GIVING A HORSE MORE FOOD 

 THAN HE CAN CONSUME AT ONE TIME. 



An important point in the routine of feeding is that a horse 

 should not be given at one time more corn, mash, roots, 

 or chop than he will consume " then and there." If he leaves 

 some of the food, we should have it at once removed, and the 

 manger cleaned out. I venture to base the reasonableness of 

 this limitation of food, on the fact that the unconsumed re- 

 mainder will be rendered more or less distasteful to the animal 

 for a future meal, by his having breathed and slavered over 

 it, and that if it is kept before him, it will be apt to put him 

 '"off his feed." Food which is left in this manner soon 

 begins to decompose, as we can find out by the sour smell 

 given off by it. We must here bear in mind that the horse 

 is a delicate feeder, which, in a state of nature, continually 

 changes the spot from which he selects his food ; and that 

 the fresher it is, the more will he relish it. I have often 



