HOURS OF FEEDING. 189 



wasteful for a horse managed on strictly economical prin- 

 ciples. An objection to feeding as late as here suggested, on 

 the plea that it would unduly interfere with the repose of the 

 animal, is not, I think, valid ; because a horse habitually sleeps 

 for such short intervals at a time, especially during the first 

 half of the night, and is such a light sleeper, that the arrange- 

 ment in question, while greatly aiding in the nutrition of the 

 system, would not disturb his rest to any appreciable extent. 

 During the night when at grass, a horse usually employs his 

 intervals of wakeful ness in seeking food. A careful observer 

 tells me that from one to four in the morning is the portion 

 of the night which horses devote specially to sleeping. My 

 experience as to the manner in which horses sleep has been 

 gained chiefly when on long sea voyages with horses ; when 

 visiting the lines at night on duty as a subaltern in a field 

 battery ; and when looking at horses in paddocks at night. 

 The great utility of a late feed at night in the case of hard- 

 worked horses was suggested to me many years ago, when I 

 was training racehorses in India, by Mr. R. Kelly Maitland, 

 who was well known in that country and subsequently in 

 Australia as a successful owner and trainer. I have found 

 this late feed plan to be as beneficial to hunters, trappers and 

 ponies as it is with thoroughbreds, and that it is specially 

 applicable to delicate feeders. A not uncommon arrange- 

 ment, which is the outcome of ignorance and sloth, is to have 

 an interval of about fifteen hours between the last feed on one 

 day and the first feed on the following morning (say from 

 6 p.m. to 9 a.m.), in which case the three, four, or five feeds 

 given during the twenty-four hours would be crowded into 

 nine hours ! It is evident that frequency of feeding does 

 not imply increase in the daily ration. 



Assuming the time for the first feed as not later than six 

 o'clock in the morning, we may have to give it earlier or 

 decrease its quantity according to the time of the subsequent 



