232 STABLE ECONOMY. 



When prolonged abstinence is unavoidable, give him less 

 than he would eat. Divide the allowance into two feeds, 

 with an interval of at least one hour between each. In this 

 way the appetite dies before the stomach is overloaded. To 

 prevent hurried ingestion, give food that is not easily eaten. 

 Boiled food, after a long fast, is unsafe, and grain should be 

 mixed with chaff. 



The Debility or Inanition of Abstinence is denoted by dul- 

 ness. The horse is languid, feeble, and inoffensive. Want 

 of food tames the very wildest ; and sometimes vicious horses 

 are purposely starved to quietness. The time a horse may 

 fast before he lose any portion of his vigor, varies very much 

 in different individuals. In some few, it may depend upon 

 peculiarity of form. Light-bellied narrow-chested horses 

 can not afford to fast so long as those of round and large car- 

 case. But in general the power of fasting depends upon 

 habit, the kind of food, and the condition of the horse. When 

 accustomed to receive his food only twice or thrice a day, he 

 can fast longer by an hour or two, without exhaustion, than 

 when he is in the habit of eating four or five times. As a 

 general rule, liable, however, to many exceptions, it may be 

 held that a horse begins to get weak soon after his usual hour 

 of eating is past. The degree and rapidity with which his 

 vigor fails depend upon his work and condition. If idle, or 

 nearly so, for a day or two previous, he may miss two or 

 three meals before exhaustion is apparent. Languor is 

 probably felt, sooner. If in low condition, he can not fast 

 long without weakness. He has nothing to spare. If his 

 usual food be all or partly soft, he can not bear abstinence so 

 well as when it is all or partly hard. 



Horses in daily and ordinary work should seldom fast more 

 than three or four hours. They generally get grain four or 

 five times a day, and between the feeding hours they are per- 

 mitted to eat hay ; so that, except during work, very few 

 horses fast more than four hours. But some, such as hunters 

 and racers, are often required to fast much longer. Hunters 

 are sometimes out for more than nine hours, and they go out 

 with an empty stomach, or with very little in it. The only 

 evil arising from such prolonged abstinence is exhaustion, and 

 among fast-working horses that can not be avoided. The 

 work and the abstinence together may produce great ex- 

 haustion and depression, and the horse may require several 

 days of rest to restore him. But if he had been fed in the 

 middle of this trying work, he would have been unable to 



