264 Feeds and Feeding. 



Where the horse must develop the maximum power continuously 

 at any considerable speed, the number of horses required for a specific 

 work will always be greatly increased. Thus the proprietors of mail- 

 coaches, even on the admirable highways of Great Britain, maintain 

 1 horse per mile of route for each coach, each horse traveling only 8 

 miles and working only an hour or less per day on the average, 4 

 horses drawing the loaded coach which weighs 2 tons. Draft horses 

 moving 2.5 miles an hour are expected to do 7 times the work of 

 coach horses moving 10 miles per hour. 



In racing, the requirement of speed reduces the work performed 

 (carrying the rider) to the smallest amount possible. Low writes:^ 

 "When it is considered that an ounce of additional loading to the 

 same horse may make the difference of a yard or more in half a mile 

 of running, it will be seen how greatly the weight borne may aft'ect 

 the issue in the case of horses of equal powers." (Ill) 



406. Relation of speed to feed. — Grandeau- found that a horse 

 walking 12,5 miles per day was kept in condition on a daily allow- 

 ance of 19.4 lbs. of hay, while a ration of 24 lbs. was insufficient 

 when the same distance was covered at a trot. A horse hauling a 

 load 12.5 miles daily, the draft performed being equivalent to 1,943 

 ft.-tons, w^as sufficiently nourished by a ration of 24.6 lbs. of hay, 

 while one of 36.2 lbs. — all the horse would eat — was not enough to 

 maintain its weight when the same amount of work was done at a 

 trot. 



There are several reasons why rapid labor is less economically per- 

 formed than slow labor. When a horse is walking at a rapid speed 

 the work of the heart is greatly increased. In trotting or galloping 

 the rise and fall of the body is much greater than in walking, and 

 therefore a smaller part of the energy expended is available for pro- 

 pelling the body. The temperature of the body also rises, and much 

 heat is lost by the evaporation of water thru the skin and lungs. The 

 proportion of food producing heat is thus increased, while that ap- 

 pearing as work is diminished. There are still other reasons why 

 rapid mechanical motion generally consumes more power than slow 

 motion, even when the distance traveled and the weight moved are 

 the same. 



407. Severe work. — The horse at severe labor must receive a large 

 supply of net nutrients, and, since its digestive organs are of rela- 

 tively small capacity, the ration must not have undue bulk. This 



^ The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Isles. 

 " After Warington, London Live Stock Journal, 1894, p. 49. 



