230 STABLE ECONOMY. 



The blood circulates too rapidly to permit the formation of 

 gastric juice, or its combination with the food ; and the blood 

 and the nervous influence are so exclusively concentrated and 

 expended upon the muscular system, that none can be spared 

 for carrying on the digestive process. 



The Effects of Fast Work on a Full Stomach are well enough 

 known among experienced horsemen. The horse becomes 

 sick, dull, breathless. He is unwilling, or unfit to proceed 

 at, nis usual pace ; and if urged onward, he quickly shows all 

 the systems of over-marking, to which I allude among the 

 accidents of work. The effects are not always the same. 

 Sometimes the horse is simply over-marked, distressed by 

 work that should not produce any distress. Some take colic, 

 some are foundered, some broken-winded. The most frequent 

 result is over-marking in combination with colic. Perhaps 

 the colic, that is, the fermentation of the food, begins before 

 the horse is distressed ; but whether or not, his distress is 

 always much aggravated by the colic. 



These effects are not entirely produced by indigestion. 

 The difficulty of breathing may be ascribed to mere fulness 

 of the stomach. Pressing upon the diaphragm, and encroach- 

 ing upon the lungs, it prevents a full inspiration ; and its 

 weight, though, not, perhaps, exceeding eight or nine pounds, 

 must have considerable influence upon a horse that has to 

 run at full speed, and even upon one who has to go far, though 

 not so fast. 



Some horses commence purging on the road, if fed directly 

 before starting They seem to get rid of the food entirely or 

 partly : for these, which are generally light-bellied horses, do 

 not suffer so much, or so often, from any of the evils con- 

 nected with a full stomach. The purgation, however, often 

 continues too long, and is rapidly followed by great ex- 

 haustion. They should be kept short of water on working 

 days, and they should have a large allowance of beans. 



All work, then, which materially hurries the breathing, 

 ought to be performed with an empty stomach, or at least 

 without a full stomach. Coaching-horses are usually fed 

 from one to two hours before starting, and hay is withheld 

 after the grain is eaten. Hunters are fed early in the morn- 

 ing ; and racers receive no food on running days till their 

 work be over. Abstinence, however, must not be carried so 

 far as to induce exhaustion before the work commences. 



After Fast Work is concluded, it is a little while ere 

 the stomach is in a condition to digest the food. Until thirst 



