116 ESSAYS ON HORSE SUBJECTS 



to insure the digestibility of the meal. If mois- 

 tening is done at all, it should be done only slight- 

 ly. A horse is so constituted that the major por- 

 tion of his feed should be fed to him dry, as in 

 this condition he will digest it more thoroughly 

 and with less liability to digestive troubles. 



Of course, a certain amount of laxative food 

 is necessary in order to mildly stimulate the 

 bowels and keep them sufficiently active. Some 

 horses cannot stand laxative food without their 

 bowels becoming unduly relaxed. To such it is 

 better not to give any, particularly if they are go- 

 ing to work the next day. It is an interesting point 

 to study, and one that throws some light on the pe- 

 culiarities of the digestive tract, to explain why 

 bran mash, boiled feed and roots act as laxatives. 

 They do not possess any purgative principle, as 

 aloes does. If a dose of aloes is given to a horse, 

 it is dissolved in the stomach, taken up by the 

 blood vessels, going the round of the circulation, 

 and is eventually eliminated by the glands of 

 the bowels, increasing their secretion very much 

 and rousing the action of the coats of the bowels, 

 so that a large quantity of liquid excrement is 

 passed. An explanation sometimes given of the 

 laxative action of mash and the like, is that it 

 is due to the increased amount of liquid supplied 

 by the moist food; but that is not a satisfactory 

 explanation, as there is not enough of it to make 



