240 STABLE ECONOMY. 



but how long the horse must be accustomed to this hard food 

 before he becomes as vigorous as it can make him, is still an 

 undecided question. The improvement is progressive, but it 

 must have some limits. So far as I have been able to observe, 

 it appears that in one year judicious feeding and work will in 

 all cases render a mature horse as fit for his work as he will 

 ever be. Many can be seasoned in less than three months, 

 and a great number receive all the improvement of which they 

 are susceptible in less than six ; I do not believe that any 

 mature horse improves after he has been on solid food and in 

 work for one year, and this period includes the time allotted 

 to training. 



A Mixed Diet is, in some cases, better than that composed 

 of only two or three articles. Oats and hay form the ordinary 

 food of stabled horses. In summer, a little grass is frequently 

 added, and in winter, roots. But a great number of horses 

 kept in towns receive nothing but oats and hay all the year 

 round. For those that do only moderate work, these two 

 articles, with a weekly feed of bran, seem to be sufficient. 

 But others, whose work is more laborious, and often perform- 

 ed in stormy weather, are, I think, the better of a more com- 

 plicated diet, more especially when the ordinary food is not 

 of the best quality. Beans form a third article, and to hard- 

 working horses they are almost indispensable. During the 

 trying months of winter, the diet may be still further varied 

 by barley, or wheat, or rye. These may be boiled, and given 

 only once a day, or they may enter into every feed. The 

 change should be made slowly ; the new articles, at first, not 

 exceeding a fourth or fifth part of the whole, and an equal 

 quantity of the ordinary food being withheld. As the horse 

 becomes used to them, the quantity may increase, if a larger 

 quantity be deemed useful. 



The horses to whom a mixed diet is most necessary, are 

 those that perform the severest work. The principal advan- 

 tage derived from the combination of seveial articles, is that 

 of tempting the horses to feed more heartily. They eat more 

 of this mixed food than of the simple, because one or more 

 of the articles are new to them. The horses, therefore, main- 

 tain their condition better. It may also be, that the use of 

 several articles enables the system to obtain that from one 

 which can not be furnished by another. 



Changes of Diet. — After the horse has been accustomed 

 to a certain kind or mixture of food, it is not to be suddenly 

 changed. By inattention to this, many errors prevail re- 



