Maintenance Requirements of Horses 301 



with horses, because in nearly all cases they are at 

 least used for occasional driving or light work, and 

 even if merely "boarded," regular exercise is necessary 

 to their welfare. 



If recent conclusions are sound, a horse needs 

 somewhat less digestible food for mere maintenance 

 than a steer of equal weight. Zuntz, who has so 

 thoroughly studied the nutrition of the horse, con- 

 cludes, after a critical survey of the results of other 

 men in connection with the elaborate data from his 

 own extended investigations, that a 1,000 -pound horse 

 can be maintained on 6.4 pounds of nutrients, pro- 

 vided the total ration contains not more than three 

 pounds of crude fiber. This means that the nutrients 

 should come from a mixture of hay and grain if this 

 minimum quantity is to be sufficient. Were only hay 

 to be fed the necessary nutrients would probably ex- 

 ceed the amount named. 



Grandeau in his experiments found that three horses, 

 whose mean weight was 852 pounds, were maintained 

 for fourteen months on 17.6 pounds of hay per day, 

 from which the three animals digested an average of 

 6.06 pounds of organic matter. Using the method of 

 computation already described, this is equal to 6.75 

 pounds of digestible nutrients for a 1,000 -pound 

 horse, a result not greatly different from that of 

 Zuntz. 



The latest conclusion of Wolff was that a 1,100- 

 pound horse should have for maintenance at rest 7.26 

 pounds of digestible organic matter daily, exclusive of 

 the digested crude fiber, which would be the same as 



