242 STABLE ECONOMY. 



these circumstances, especially the work, must regulate the 

 allowance. 



When the horse has to work as much and as often as he is 

 able, his allowance of food should be unlimited. 



When the work is such as to destroy the legs more than it 

 exhausts the system, the food must be given with some re- 

 striction, unless the horse be a poor eater. 



When the work is moderate, or less than moderate, a good 

 feeder will eat too much. 



When the weather is cold, horses that are much exposed 

 to it require more food than when the weather is warm. 



When the horse is in good working condition, he needs less 

 food than while he is only getting into condition. 



Young, growing horses require a little more food than those 

 of mature age ; but, as they are not fit for full work, the dif- 

 ference is not great. 



Old horses, those that have begun to decline in vigor, re- 

 quire more food than the young or the matured. 



Hot-tempered, irritable horses seldom feed well ; but those 

 that have good appetites require more food to keep them in 

 condition, than others of quiet and calm disposition. 



Small-bellied, narrow-chested horses require more food 

 than those of deep and round carcass ; but few of them eat 

 enough to maintain them in condition for full work. 



Lame, greasy-heeled, and harness-galled horses require an 

 extra allowance of food to keep them in working condition. 



Sickness, fevers, inflammations, all diseases which influence 

 health so much as to throw the horse off work, demand, with 

 few exceptions, a spare diet, which, in general, consists of 

 bran-mashes, grass, carrots, and hay. 



Deficiency of Food. — When the owner can afford to feed 

 his horse, he generally allows him sufficient. He soons dis- 

 covers that the work can not be done without it. He may 

 grudge the cost of keeping, but he soon finds that it is easier 

 to buy food than to buy horses. Starvation and hard work 

 quickly wear them out. Though nobody who can avoid it 

 will starve his working horses, yet many think it no sin to 

 starve idle horses. Colts, before they come into use, and 

 horses thrown out of work by lameness or other causes, are 

 often very ill fed, or, rather, they are not fed at all. The 

 privations of a farmer's stock during winter may not in every 

 case be avoidable, and when they can not be cured they must 

 be endured. But the allowance of food is often reduced too 



