FEEDING OF WORKING ANIMALS 279 



something better is discovered, the starch equiva- 

 lent as a measure of the work in calculating rations 

 for horses. 



With regard to the form which the food shall 

 take that is to be fed to working horses, it must 

 first be remembered that the coarse fodder must be 

 decreased the greater the call upon the animal is. 

 The smaller capacity of the digestive organs of a 

 horse compared with that of a ruminant indicates 

 at once that the more voluminous foods — hay, 

 straw, green fodder — must be cut down in the case 

 of the horse. The burden of these badly digested 

 materials, the disturbance of respiration through 

 too large a volume of food, and the relatively small 

 amount of nutritive matter which they contain, is 

 the reason why usually less than 20 lbs. coarse 

 fodder are given per 1000 lbs. live weight — generally, 

 in fact, less than 15 lbs. and sometimes even less 

 than 10 lbs. The supply of coarse fodder can only 

 be totally suppressed for a very short time, for 

 otherwise, even if a good supply of oats be given, 

 the appetite diminishes and the digestive organs 

 become upset. The coarse fodders most useful to 

 give to horses are meadow and grass hay, lucerne, 

 sainfoin and clover hay, also the straw of summer 

 and winter cereals, above all oat, barley, and 

 wheat straws. In some large stables where fodder 

 has to be bought, the practice of feeding oat or 

 wheat straw instead of hay has been followed 



